The Outcast
by Erythreas
Summary: It was a simple task they had been given: Dispatch of a pack of Beowolves that threatens the farmlands in the north-eastern parts of Vytal. Team RWBY has been dropped there, on their first official mission, but the beasts managed to strike the four Huntresses in training by surprise. Ruby and Weiss are on their own - until they meet someone who wished to be forgotten.
1. 01 - Schack in the Woods

The events of the last night were spinning in Weiss' thoughts as soon as she woke up. It was a hell of a night with Ruby. First they got ambushed by Beowolves that managed to separate them from Blake and Yang, and after dispatching of the ones following them, they had to flee from a Deathstalker. The result was simple, but yet dangerous: Ruby and Weiss were lost in a Forest they did not know, a small cave provided at least some shelter against the wind and possible rain. They were somewhere in the northern parts of Vytal that were still cold from the last winter, and Ruby was hurt…

Ruby was hurt! Weiss snapped out of her thoughts, and rushed to her partner's aid. After a quick glance at the injury Weiss knew she needed to get some help, before the situation got worse. Ruby's right leg had been ripped open on the side, which caused some blood loss, leaving Weiss no other choice than to carry her somewhere safe. _Thank the Gods this Deathstalker is gone, _Weiss thought to herself. At least one problem was solved for now. The heiress made sure Ruby's cloak did protect her from the harsh weather around them, put her partner on her shoulders as gentle as possible, and made for the forest again.

Weiss stopped suddenly when Ruby groaned in pain. She sat down her partner leaning against a tree trunk carefully, and tried to wake her up. "Ruby? Can you hear me?" She has carried her partner around on her shoulders for what seemed to be at least one and a half hour, so her back started to hurt at this point.

"…Leg… …Hurts…" Ruby could manage to say before the pain almost made her scream. She clenched her teeth, knowing any noise could attract the beasts they were trying to escape from. Weiss took a quick look around, and found no threat in her field of view, but no sign of Yang and Blake either. The situation was getting more serious by the minute, as if it was not hard enough already.

"Ruby, please stay with me." The heiress almost cried. "We're safe for now. I will- Oh no…" Her ice blue eyes widened as she reached for her scroll, and found nothing. In fact, the whole pouch it was in must have been ripped off her belt during the escape. Weiss herself did not take a scratch, much to her relief, but that did not solve the problem. She looked at Ruby.

"I… It's smashed to… Argh! P-pieces… S-sorry…" Ruby pressed through her still clenched teeth, and pointed on the pouch her device was stored in. It has been squeezed, during the encounter maybe, but at least the scroll was still in there, even if its condition could not be seen right away.

"It's okay." Weiss said calmly, as she looked around, getting more and more desperate while doing so. The pouch with the scroll did not matter at that moment. There had to be something somewhere. She kept away tears that tried to build up in her eyes.

She looked left: The woods they were going through just a few moments ago.

She looked right: More forest to be crossed.

She looked behind herself: Even more trees, leaves, and snow on the ground.

She looked behind the tree Ruby was leaning against: A clearing with a shack on it.

"How did I not see this?" Weiss asked herself aloud. She grabbed Ruby, not even asking if she could walk or not. The young girl was getting paler by the minute, due to blood loss Weiss assumed.

It did not take much effort to arrive at the door of the shack. Actually it was a small wooden house with two floors and several rooms. One of the rooms upstairs was lit, a shadow stood at the window, most likely seeing Weiss, who crossed the ground between the forest and the front door with Ruby on her arms. It didn't move however.

"Please have a scroll…" Weiss begged whoever was inside before kicking at the door, knocking this way, since her hands were occupied with Ruby. She needed to make sure to be heard. Nothing happened for what seemed to be an eternity. "Ruby, are you still there?" The young girl simply put a hand on Weiss' cheek, and whispered. "Still here…"

* * *

><p>"Good morning…" a calm, yet repellent female voice spoke up after the door was opened. What she saw was a young girl wearing a combat skirt in an ice colored scheme, who carried a younger girl in bridal fashion. She younger one wore black and red, a cloak covered most of her body, but the woman could still see the blood drenching the red fabric. "What do you require?"<p>

"What do- Don't you see she's injured?!" The teen was obviously an arrogant one, desperate, however, almost in panic. A discussion would not do the victim of said injury any good, so the woman made way, and pointed up the stairs just right of the entrance.

"Do you require material for stitches, or just bandages? You would want to disinfect the wounds most likely. There is a guest room upstairs, second door on the left. Help yourself in there, I'll get my supplies and see what I can do." The woman stayed calm, but spoke in a commanding tone, as the teen in front of her followed her instructions to the letter.

"I don't know, if stitches are needed, Ma'am. Thank you," The older teen answered as she passed her host.

"I see. Go ahead." The owner of this house in the middle of a forest closed the door behind them, and went into her kitchen to get said supplies, without giving them another look. "Okay… Just patch her up, tell them directions and they should be gone," She said to herself, before leaving for the guest room the two should be in by now. She took a short look into a mirror that was placed in the small hallway, realizing the older of the two girls looked somewhat familiar. They shared white hair, a scar on the right eye, but the teen was luckier than her: The eye did not seem to be blinded. The woman shook her head, discarding the trail of thought for the moment. There was a more urgent matter to attend to.

"Okay, Ruby. We got some help. Everything will be fine."

"So that's her name. What's yours?"

"Weiss Schnee, Ma'am." She seemed surprised to see the woman in the door of the room. Weiss stood up, moved out of the way. Ruby seemed to have passed out about a minute ago.

"Hello, Ms. Schnee. My name is Erydias Grey," she introduced herself as she closed the door behind her, and moved towards the injured girl. As far as she could tell by the looks of her, the young one was in a bad shape, but her life was not at risk, yet. "Did a Beowolf do this?" she asked, and pointed at Ruby's leg. Weiss just nodded. "I see."

* * *

><p>Weiss tensed up as the stranger, Erydias Grey, started to tear apart Ruby's Pantyhose after removing her right boot. She saw flesh and bone, blood dripping out of the wound, but this Erydias stayed calm, almost cold. She simply poured a reddish liquid over and into the wound, used some medical pads to remove the spilled substance, blood and dirt from the wound again without even paying attention to Ruby, who tensed up herself, and started to scream.<p>

"What are you doing? Hold her still," Erydias literally ordered, and Weiss obeyed as soon as possible. Ruby on the other hand did not recognize what was going on, and therefore tried to defend herself, tossing and turning in the process. Erydias grabbed an injector of some sort and injected its contents into the young one's right arm. "Narcotic agent," she simply stated, and waited for it to take effect. And highly effective it was because just a few minutes later the screaming stopped, and Erydias started her saturation.

"Are you a doctor, Mrs. Grey?" Weiss asked after a while, while she caressed Ruby's head carefully.

"Ms. Grey. And no, I'm not," the woman replied without even looking up. Her tone was polite but yet somewhat repellent at the same time, just like in the moment they met. It did not matter at the time. Ruby needed the help the stranger offered, even if she made sure Weiss knew they were not quite welcome.

The saturation itself went on in silence, was done in a most professional way, and the leg cleaned with care. Erydias took her time with cleaning the mess under Ruby's leg, before she grabbed a set of bandages, and finished her medical work on the young Huntress to be. The woman still uttered not a single word, as she laid finishing touches on the bandages, and started to clean up behind herself.

Weiss waited until the woman was finished with all of it, before breaking the silence again. "Thank you for helping us." Weiss followed the woman out of the room, who did not even react to her words, closed the door behind them, and did not get a response until they entered what seemed to be the living room. There she took a closer look at her host for the first time. White hair, just like hers, a green and a blinded, gray eye, the right one, with a scar similar to Weiss' own. She wore a gray shirt, blue pants and white socks, all simple and yet elegant. She seemed to be physically strong, but not too muscular.

"Take a seat, Ms. Schnee. Ruby won't wake up until tomorrow morning. I chose this dose rate of the agent so that she wouldn't try to move in the next hours – I'm not taking any chances of her ripping her leg back open."

Weiss sat down on the black leather couch that Erydias pointed at while she listened to her explanation. It made sense to her, even if the heiress was not as educated in medical techniques as Erydias. The room itself was comfortable and bright, a desk could be found in one corner, some prizes were placed on top of the fireplace, a white armor with sword and shield stood next to the exit of the room that led to the hallway. The chest of the armor was adorned with a silver sword, blade pointing down, and two stylized fists, one on each side of the blade. It was definitely not decoration. Traces of use and maintenance could be seen clearly.

It was a cozy little home Ms. Grey lived in. But Weiss did not feel welcome at all. The woman ensured this via body language and tone of speech. "I'm afraid I have to request further assistance, Ms. Grey. I need to contact the rest of our team, Ma'am. One of them is Ruby's sister, and they need to know where we are." Weiss saw that Erydias did not like the idea of any more guests, but tried to keep herself calm. She could not afford to worsen the situation Ruby and herself were in by offending their involuntary host, who took a brief pause, before she answered.

"Then use your scroll," Erydias simply suggested. How did she manage to not be annoyed by now? Weiss knew it may be possible that one did simply forget about the device, so she swallowed her pride this time. A Schnee did not simply make such mistakes.

"I lost it," Weiss admitted, a little bit embarrassed about that fact. How was that even possible? "And Ruby's is broken," she added.

"You want to use mine?"

"…Your permission to do so, yes."

"I'm afraid I don't have one."

_Gods, no… What am I going to do now?_ Weiss was desperate. With no means to contact their friends or to call for help from Beacon, she jumped up from the couch again, walking around Erydias' living room restlessly for several minutes. The involuntary host simply watched the heiress this entire time, until she spoke up again.

"You've got two options: To get Ruby's scroll, and try to fix it. Or to get out there, and retrieve yours."

Erydias pointed in the general direction of both her suggestions, before she got up herself. Weiss tensed once again, she felt threatened by this person this time. "Stop dilly dallying, girl."

"Where are you going?" Weiss asked hesitantly.

"Finishing my breakfast," Erydias replied, before leaving, probably for the upper floor. "Ruby won't wake up until tomorrow anyway, due to the medication I had to use, as said. You have plenty of time, and that should not be wasted, don't you agree, Ms. Schnee?"

"How long will we have to stay here?" Weiss asked. The woman stopped in the doorway, and waited a brief moment before she answered.

"Considering the depth of the wound, Aura accelerating her rate of healing, the medication that has been used additionally… I think something between four and five days, and you will be able to move her."

"She won't be fully recovered by then," Weiss protested. She could not believe that this woman wanted to get rid of her and Ruby, even though she made it obvious from the beginning. Now Erydias made it official: She wanted to get Ruby and Weiss moving again as soon as possible, for some personal reasons, the heiress assumed. The woman however did not want the conversation to carry on, and left for her stated designation. Weiss was left in the living room, and took a deep breath. _Is that what it feels like being around me?_ she wondered, while taking a closer look at her surroundings. As she got to the prizes on top of the fireplace, there was one document that took Weiss' breath away. It was a certification, handed to graduates of Beacon Academy.

"She's a Huntress!"

* * *

><p><strong>The next Chapter: Retrieval<strong>

**So, here we are: The first chapter of a larger project I am working on. There won't be any regular updates, I'm afraid. As last time, feel free to criticize, but do so in a constructive way.**


	2. 02 - Retrieval

"Please work…" Weiss whispered. After casting aside the fact of being in the home of a seasoned Huntress for the time being, the heiress decided to go for the first option that had been suggested. When she entered the room, Ruby had not moved even a single inch. Whatever this medication was, it scared Weiss until she double checked Ruby's breath and pulse. At first Weiss hesitated to take the scroll out of the squeezed pouch it was in. _It's smashed to pieces, she said,_ Weiss thought every time she grabbed the pouch, and released it again every time the thought was finished. The heiress took the liberty to rid Ruby of some of her clothing, mainly the remaining boot, her beloved red cloak, still drenched in blood, and the belt with the hilt for, and with Crescent Rose, Ruby's ammo, and the scroll. Weiss did not dare touch the black combat skirt or the remainder of the pantyhose. It was not appropriate.

After placing everything orderly in a corner of the room, Weiss returned to the scroll. Finally she managed to overcome her doubts, much to her surprise: The device had been bent, but did withstand the force it had been exposed to otherwise. She was holding it in both hands, ready to unfold it. She repeated her plea once more, before actually unfolding Ruby's scroll. "Please work…"

The display was flickering, menus and icons distorted, and not quite in place, some more than others. Weiss did not think of Ruby having any order on this device anyway, as she did not have it with her studying materials. But this was a mess even her tight order of icons on her own scroll could possibly prevent. Luckily, the heiress managed to locate the list of contacts, and Yang in there. "So far, so good, Weiss. A call is off the table, so where do I… Ah, there you are," Weiss said to the device – she actually talked to herself for the first time in her life – as she managed to start the messaging application. It took her a while to adapt to the blurry symbols that were supposed to be the keyboard, but eventually the heiress created a message for Yang.

-=Ruby is alive. We found help, a Huntress. House on a clearing. Weiss=-

The message was simple, but straight to the point. Everything important to Yang was in there, or at least Weiss assumed there was. They knew each other not well enough for the heiress to be sure about that, but it did not matter at the time. What did matter, however, was the one question on Weiss' mind as soon as she hit what she thought was the 'send'-button. _Will she actually receive it?_ Right after that, the scroll started to throw out sparks for about two seconds before dying out completely.

Weiss placed the now broken scroll on the end table next to the bed her team leader lay in. Ruby still looked lifeless, and Weiss started to worry again. Five days at best, and they would have to get out of the house, moving wherever Erydias told them to go. Weiss would have to aid Ruby in such mundane things as walking – if she would not be forced to carry her the entire time – sitting down and standing up again. Her team leader could not even defend herself, let alone cover the heiress' back. She felt a fear crawling down her spine, as Weiss took another look at Ruby on the bed. She had to protect her, but for now the dunce was safe. But Weiss still was not sure whether or not the message got to the others, and would not be able to find out.

_Why am I so… Insecure? It's not like this Erydias can read my mind or anything. The way she looked at me, however, was… Intriguing,_ Weiss thought to herself and sat on the edge of the bed. Before she did that, the heiress removed Myrtenaster from its hilt. There had to be something odd with this Huntress. Something definitely was not right, but Weiss could not pinpoint it yet. However, when Myrtenaster entered her field of vision, she lost track of this trail of thoughts.

_Wait a minute… Is this… No…_ There was blood on the blade of Myrtenaster. Nothing unusual, considering that Weiss had fought a pack of Beowolves the night before. What stiffened her was a sudden feeling of unknown origins, slowly crawling up the heiress' spine.

* * *

><p>When the Grimm had surrounded them, the members of team RWBY fought their worst to create a way out of the pack, so they could retreat and regroup. While it worked for Yang and Blake relatively easily, Weiss and Ruby struggled not to get separated from one another while the beasts chased them around the clearing they managed to escape to. The dolt shot and slashed at the Beowolves in a flurry of muzzle flashes, rose petals, and bullet casings. The heiress, on the other hand, focused one creature of Grimm at a time – or two if she really had to – and dispatched of them using her glyphs and Myrtenaster efficiently.<p>

"Why are there so many of them?!" Ruby shouted, still engaged by three of the monsters.

"How should I know?!" Weiss replied harshly, as usual. "This is not the time, anyway, Ruby!"

A few slashes and shots later, Weiss realized that the Beowolves managed what the two of them tried so hard to prevent: They got between Ruby and the heiress. "Ruby, get back here!" Weiss screamed at the top of her lungs. The creatures were closing in on her, after they had surrounded Weiss. She started firing her red Dust attacks around herself, more or less aimed, which whatever was there to hit evaded with relative ease. There were only three of them in front of Weiss. The first beast to approach her took a stab to the heart by Myrtenaster. Weiss stabbed and slashed towards the other Grimm approaching her, panicked by the lack of response.

Then, out of nowhere, something red appeared above her. Two brightly red eyes in the darkened sky gazed at her. Weiss struck out, and attacked with all force her arm could muster. The scream of pain made her blood freeze. The familiar, high pitched voice just screamed out in pure agony, as Crescent Rose fell to the ground, shortly after its wielder Ruby had fallen herself. The two red eyes were mere rose petals, the effect of Ruby's Semblance. She was holding the injured leg, screaming out her pain, while the Beowolves stood right next to her, gazing at their now easy prey.

It was then when Weiss lounged forward, using a gravity well to propel herself with enough force to kick the left Grimm out of the way, while the right one received another stab to the heart by Myrtenaster. There were even more behind these two, but the Beowolves started to retreat. The reason for that was a Deathstalker that burst out of the ground, just where the pack was about a second ago. Weiss didn't even think. She just needed to get Ruby out of there. So she grabbed the younger girl. The heiress threw the rose on her own back to carry her. She even grabbed Crescent Rose. Nothing mattered, but to get away. Lucky for them, the giant Grimm took the pack of Beowolves for a larger threat than the two Huntresses – or the easier prey, both options were fine.

Weiss never turned around, but could always hear the clacking of the deadly Grimm. It was following them, she knew it. There was a small cave they could hide in, so she did. Ruby had fallen unconscious, therefore silent, and Weiss was just too tired to carry her any further. Inside the cave, the heiress leaned her team leader and herself against a wall, and closed her eyes after making sure Ruby was still breathing…

* * *

><p>"I did this to you…" Weiss whispered, time and time again, with Myrtenaster in both hands, and looked at Ruby in disgust – but not by the young girl, her team leader, or the injury she currently suffered from. Instead, Weiss was disgusted by herself. How could she let this have happened? The one person who actually seemed to care for the heiress had been severely injured by her. They slowly started to trust each other, and now this! "BAH!" Weiss shouted, and threw Myrtenaster away from the bed, away from Ruby. It was thrown somewhere it could not do any harm to her. There was no excuse for what Weiss had done. Unacceptable! But at least now Weiss knew this feeling that has taken hold of her. It had been a long time since she felt it last, and it was just as bad back then. Guilt. She felt guilty for Ruby's current condition, and she was.<p>

A knock on the door drew Weiss out of her thoughts. "Did you manage to contact your team, Ms. Schnee?" It was Erydias asking, while the Huntress opened the door. As she was standing in the doorway, she sounded definitely just as repellent than when they met at her doorstep. Yet another reminder for the heiress that she and Ruby were not wanted here.

"What… Why are you…?" Weiss asked hesitantly. Erydias' sudden appearance made her nervous to the point she tried to get a hold of Myrtenaster, and tensed up once again as she noticed her weapon lay in the corner she has thrown it moments ago. The Huntress had to know about what happened, or at least suspect Weiss for it. Never before had a person managed to see Weiss drained like this. The layer of ice around her soul would prevent anyone from reaching the heiress on an emotional level. And yet, this one woman did just that, simply by entering the guest room. She did not look at Weiss aggressively. Neither did her body language show any hostility.

"I did this…" Weiss mumbled, pointing at Ruby.

"I know…" Erydias said calmly and quietly. Now all of a sudden the hostile tone was missing in the woman's voice. She spoke gently, a warm smile on her lips, as she approached Weiss, who started flailing her arms in defense.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" She shouted. "We… We were surrounded by… By Beowolves… It was dark… I thought I saw one, and attacked… Attacked her instead… By no means is this a betrayal, I swear!" Her host approached her slowly, limping a bit. Weiss could not make any sense out of the woman's body language. Neither did Erydias look angered, nor did she seem to try to take a hold of Weiss. She simply limped towards her, and put a hand on the left shoulder of the heiress. It was just a mere pat, but its force was enough to force Weiss to her knees. It took all of her discipline not to burst out in tears over what happened.

"Then why is it that you are berating yourself about the matter this much?" The heiress looked at the Huntress, confused by what she just heard. Weiss tried to ice up again, but failed even before she could snap at the woman again. Instead, she remained silent for minutes. Her eyes filled with tears every time she opened them, but she kept them to herself. There was no reason to cry. It was an accident. But why would the tears keep coming then? Why did she feel this bad about it? What was going on with her? As Weiss eventually dared look up, Erydias had left her side again, and moved towards the end table.

"It seems you should go and retrieve your scroll, if you are willing to help Ruby."

"Of… Of course I am."

"Then put yourself in gear and get a move on, girl. Seize the daylight while it lasts," Erydias ordered this time, the hostility back to the level it has been this entire morning. "And when you return, you are to explain to me why the two of you were out here to begin with. Now move it!"

* * *

><p>A few hours later Weiss was alone in the forest, Myrtenaster in hand, and looked around every bush, branch, and tree she came across in search for her scroll. It must have been around 1 p.m. as she came across a familiar rock with a cave in it. <em>Wait… Is that…? <em>Suddenly, the heiress darted forwards to a bush not far away from the cave entrance. "There you are, you stupid thing!" She almost yelled through the forest. Her pouch with the scroll in it lay more or less in plain sight, just in the shadow of the bush next to it. There were several scratches on the surface of the pouch.

Weiss grabbed and opened it immediately. _YES! _The scroll inside was still intact. Without even thinking, she unfolded the device, looked up Yang in her contacts, and made the call.

-=Who's that?!=- The device spoke up almost too sudden. Weiss sighed in relief, before answering. But there was a strange noise in the background. _Engines? _Weiss wondered.

"It's Weiss, Yang. I-"

-=Weiss! You okay?=- Yang certainly did sound worried, but it still was a surprise that the brawler did not ask about her sister's well being immediately. Maybe they received the message Weiss tried to send via Ruby's scroll.

"Yes, I am unharmed." _Now comes the fun part, _Weiss thought to herself in the middle of the breath she took before explaining the situation. "But Ruby… She's injured."

-=WHAT?! WHERE ARE YOU?!=-

"Yang, listen. She's in a house on a clearing somewhere in the middle of the forest. I-"

-=YOU LEFT HER ALONE?!=- Yang was furious, and interrupted Weiss once again. She was trying to explain everything, but had no means to counter the blonde's big sister instincts that obviously overwhelmed her at the moment. Another deep breath was taken by the heiress.

"No, she's with a Huntress we met. Y-"

-=What happened to my baby sis?=-

"Yang, calm down, and I will explain everything to you properly." _Or at least stop interrupting me. _Weiss just took a seat on a nearby tree stump as a sudden and unexpected silence was all that came from her scroll – not even what the heiress assumed to be the noise of engines could be heard. She was weary. _Microphone turned off, I suppose,_ She thought. _Was I too harsh again? I don't think I snapped at her, or did I?_ It seemed to take several minutes until Yang finally broke the silence again.

-=Okay… I'm good… Go ahead, Weiss,=- Yang sounded like she cried a lot in these past few moments. -=Blake's listening, too,=- The blonde added, although it was nothing more than a whisper.

"Hello, Blake. Good to hear you're fine as well," Weiss greeted her team mate, before starting to explain what happened to Ruby and her, beginning with the fight against the Beowolves, after they got separated. The heiress paused briefly as she got to the point when Ruby was injured, and decided to skip the incident for the moment. More importantly, Ruby was alive and safe, and Weiss had to cover her confusing feelings for now, acting icy as usual to do so – as she always has.

It took all the strength Weiss could muster not to tell Yang about HOW Ruby's injury came to be, but she described the wound itself as detailed as she could remember. The same went for the treatment Erydias had provided for Ruby, although the heiress did not mention her by name – simply referred to her as 'the Huntress'. The heiress did not mention the tension between her and Erydias. However, she admitted that she lost her scroll, and tried to use Ruby's broken device to contact Yang hours ago. Right after this obviously failed, which was confirmed by the other half of team RWBY, the heiress went back into the forest to look for her scroll.

"…And now I am explaining things to you," Weiss finished.

-=Okay. Weiss, we're headed back to Beacon already, getting some help to find you. It looks like we need a medical team for Ruby though. Assembling one could take a while,=- Blake spoke up while she had the chance. It could have been a reminder for Yang to not worry too much, but Weiss did not know for sure. At least her assumption about the engine noise in the background was right.

"Yes…" Weiss said while getting up on her feet again. It was time to move back, now that these things were settled for the time being. "I see you tomorrow then?"

-=I think. Just remember to switch on the distress signal when you're back at that house.=- Yang advised unnecessarily. -=In case we can come for you sooner,=- Blake added. At least they were reasonable.

"Okay. I'm heading back now. See you."

-=See you. And princess: Take care of Ruby,=- Yang said before she disconnected the conversation.

_Of course I will._ Weiss replied to her, even though it was just a thought.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Lessons<strong>

**Here it is: chapter 2. Feel free to leave suggestions for improvements as a review, I sort of depend on the feedback in order to improve my abilities.**


	3. 03 - Lessons

Weiss took another four hours to find the way back to the house Erydias lived in. As she stood in front of the door, Weiss thought about how she could possibly tell Ruby the truth about her leg. Berating her for something, which was not Ruby's fault, was out of the question. On the other hand, she did not communicate during the encounter, and that was not the first time either. Maybe Ruby did not see Weiss in the dark, and got into her way without even noticing it. That was no excuse for what Weiss had done, of course, but it could explain how the situation came to be. Now it was dinner time, and the heiress felt hungry, for obvious reasons like the lack of a proper breakfast.

As she opened the door, she noticed a somewhat familiar smell, coming from the kitchen. Weiss went there directly, even though the presence of Erydias came back to her mind as the heiress entered the entrance to the kitchen. Just seeing the Huntress made her uncomfortable. Erydias was cooking something inside at least one large, and one medium sized pot.

"Right on schedule, Ms. Schnee. I assumed, you would be hungry, when you return to us," Erydias stated calmly, and repellent, as usual. The heiress noticed some sort of connection between behavior and presence of the Huntress. However, she was cut off before mentioning her return, so Erydias actually did notice her. "Did you accomplish the objective of your retrieval-mission?"

"Yes… Thank you for asking. Is… Is Ruby alright?" Weiss asked in hesitation. She feared that her team leader's condition had become worse during her necessary absence.

"Why don't you go upstairs, and find out for yourself? I'm busy here, as you might have noticed." That answer was typical for this woman. How could someone possibly stand being around a person like Erydias? "Dinner will be served in about five minutes."

Weiss nodded, as the added hint was given, and headed upstairs. She noticed the mirror in the small hallway for the first time, although she had passed it about five times now. The heiress could see the weariness on herself, and some sort of restlessness as well. _It was a very long day, Weiss. You look like it._ The heiress turned away from the mirror, and recognized a black hat: A simple, black fedora hung next to the mirror, on a hook. _I've seen this before… but where?_ On her way up the stairs, Weiss noticed that the door to the guest room stood open a bit. As she entered the room carefully, her heart was comforted for the first time in the last 48 hours. There she was, Ruby Rose, clothed in a gray nightgown and connected to a medical drip with a clear liquid in it. The sight, however, was not, what comforted the heart of the heiress. It was the voice, just as tired as hers, that said three simple words. "You came back."

"What teammate would not come back?" Weiss asked. She tossed Myrtenaster aside, again, and went straight towards Ruby, who tried to sit up a little. "No. You stay put, Ruby," the heiress said gently. "And why are you awake? I was told you wouldn't wake up until tomorrow."

"Well," Ruby started, "there is something in this drip, that helps my body recreate the blood I've lost. But the same stuff also counters the narcotic agent that was used this morning." Ruby sounded much like Erydias, while explaining the situation to Weiss. "Uh, sorry, I recited the walkie-talkie."

While Ruby was explaining her strange choice of words, Weiss looked around in the guest room. There was a mattress, lying next to the closet, a small table with a chair stood in the corner next to the door, and Ruby's clothes were gone. "The what?" Weiss asked, and looked at the end table that Ruby pointed at. A walkie-talkie lay on the edge, just in range for Ruby to grasp it. "Where is the other one?" The heiress asked.

"I don't know?" Ruby asked. The young team leader smiled awkwardly after that, and Weiss raised an eyebrow. "I-I was very woozy after I woke up. I saw someone placing… Stuff in here. Gray shirt, blue pants…" Ruby started to wear out again as she tried to remember what she had seen.

"Hush, Ruby," interrupted Weiss, and put a hand on her partner's shoulder. "I know who you mean. Ms. Grey is our host, and she saved you."

"As far, as I am aware, it was YOU, who saved Ruby, Ms. Schnee." The door opened, and Erydias entered the room casually, while giving her statement. She limped directly towards the table, and put two plates with Spaghetti on it. Her tone was not as repellent, as Weiss was used to, but somewhat agonized. _Whatever makes her limp – it seems to hurt a lot,_ Weiss thought while watching Erydias, who turned around immediately after serving dinner, but could not hide the pain her face was expressing in that moment. There was a walkie-talkie on her belt, which looked just like the one on the end table.

"Oh, there's the other one…" Weiss noted, and picked up the walkie-talkie from the end table.

"There's a button on the back of it. Push it, and you'll have your privacy," Erydias explained indirectly, what she used the set of devices for: Monitoring Ruby. She limped towards the young Huntress in training, and undid the connection to the almost empty drip beside the bed. The woman put the drip, the square column it was attached to, and even the needle in Ruby's left hand aside, just next to the door, before taking her leave again. She did not say a single word during her actions.

"Thank you." Weiss followed her host to the door of the guest room, and closed it behind Erydias. She then turned towards Ruby, and asked gently: "Can you eat on your own, Ruby?"

"I think I'll give it a shot," the younger girl answered wearily.

"Alright." Weiss went to her, helped her into a sitting position, and fetched the food. She handed over one fork, and placed one plate on the covers with great care.

"Thanks, Weiss."

"That's the least I c-" Weiss shuddered, when Ruby suddenly flinched in pain. The heiress grabbed the plate, and lifted it. "Did I put it on your leg?" she asked with concern.

"N-no… It just started to hurt. Do you know what happened?" Ruby asked while clenching her fists on top of the covers. _She doesn't even have a clue…_ Weiss thought. But before she even could start to explain, Ruby continued to talk, weary as she was. At least the pain seemed to be gone again. "You know… There was one behind you. I… Charged in to kill it… And then… Everything went red, then dark…"

_Gods, you even… Why did this happen?_ The heiress felt the cold feeling of guilt crawling up her spine again. Not only did she injure her friend, who she never really treated as such. She literally punished the young leader of team RWBY for saving her very life. Luckily, Ruby did not seem to know how 'everything went red, then dark'.

"You got hit, Ruby," Weiss explained while looking at her team leader. Her decision to hold back a portion of the truth hurt the heiress, but at least she found a way to avoid admitting her unacceptable mistake, without lying to the little rose.

"I got hit by what?" Ruby asked.

"I couldn't see it properly, I'm afraid," Weiss answered in her most polite tone she could muster. Again it was no lie, but it was not the whole truth either. Ruby kept silent for a few moments, looked at Weiss as if she was waiting for something. The heiress looked back at her, taking a deep, but silent breath. _Gods, she knows… Oh Gods, she knows… _Weiss thought nervously.

"Thanks for saving me," Ruby whispered, before taking a slight hold of Weiss' hand, which still held the plate with the Spaghetti. "We should eat, before they cool down too much," the young Huntress in training added. Weiss just nodded in agreement, and the two ate the dinner their host provided.

"Mh… Pfif if good…" Ruby stated without even swallowing her first portion she put in her mouth.

"Ruby, please don't talk with a mouthful of food," Weiss reminded her of some manners. "But you're right, these Spaghetti are well made."

"Sorry," the red haired girl said, slightly blushing, "What were you doing, while I was out?"

"Well," the white haired girl started, "I tried to contact the others. At first with you scroll, but that didn't work out."

"Oh. Yang must be worried sick." Ruby looked sad all of a sudden. Good thing, that Weiss had further information to make her feel more comfortable again.

"After I finished your scroll, I went back into the forest," Weiss continued, only to be interrupted. _Runs in the family, I suppose._

"Why would you do that?"

"I tried to find my scroll, which I lost while we came here." The conversation with Yang earlier that day seemed to be a good preparation for dealing with Ruby during the current one: The scythe wielder interrupted the heiress again.

"Did that work out?"

"Yes, I managed to contact Yang, and Blake. They-" And Ruby interrupted Weiss again.

"Are they alright?" she asked, sincerely concerned. Weiss just sighed, and nodded.

"Yes, they are fine, and should be back at Beacon by now…" This time Weiss made a pause for Ruby to speak up. But the rose did not say anything. "They went back to get help, Ruby."

"Why didn't they come back for us immediately?" Ruby mumbled under another bite of her dinner.

"Assembling a medical team for your leg takes a while. They'll come and get us tomorrow," Weiss answered gently. "Besides, this pack of Beowolves is still out there, in the forest."

"That sounds reasonable," the younger of the two girls said quietly. "I didn't think about that."

"Oh, that reminds me…" Weiss said hastily, and pulled her scroll out of the pouch. Initially, the heiress wanted to activate the distress signal, so that they could be located for the pickup. But a look at Ruby got her another idea. "Do you want to talk to Yang?" she asked, and Ruby's eyes went wide in excitement.

"Can I really?"

"Of course you can, dun-… n't overdo it, though. You need rest." Weiss prepared the scroll for Ruby to make the call, after they finished their dinner. The room provided a somewhat cozy atmosphere, which calmed Weiss down a lot, before Ruby started to talk to her sister via her scroll. Weiss could hear Yang's relief about Ruby's current condition clearly, and she could see the joy in Ruby's face while the heiress listened to their conversation, even though the young leader was getting tired rapidly.

"I think I'll sleep now, Yang…" the young Huntress in training said wearily. "We'll see you tomorrow, big sis…"

-=See ya, Ruby. And Weiss: Thanks for taking care of her,=- Yang responded much calmer than she was during the conversation about four and a half hours ago.

"You're welcome. See you soon," Weiss answered quietly. As she folded her scroll again, Ruby had already fallen asleep, smiling like the little dunce she was. The heiress caught herself smiling warmly on this sight. A few strokes through Ruby's hair later, she reflected on what happened that day:

First, she got help for Ruby by a stranger, who happened to live in the middle of nowhere. Second, she got helpful advice from that stranger, more than once, while dealing with her situation. But this stranger also wanted her gone for some reason, and Weiss was curious about that reason. This Erydias Grey character had no means of communication to the outside world either. This didn't make any sense to Weiss, but she was afraid of confronting her host about that matter. Yes, there was this presence the woman surrounded herself with. Weiss didn't understand Erydias, and that bothered the heiress.

But eventually, Weiss fell asleep herself. As her vision started to blur, she took a hold of Ruby's hand. "I swear to the gods, Ruby: I will never let something like this happen again," she whispered, before her eyes closed one last time, and the heiress fell into a deep, and well earned sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Memories<strong>

**Here it is: Chapter three of this work. I reworked the plot while writing this chapter, therefore changed the title of it. Have fun reading, and feel free to comment as you see fit.**


	4. 04 - Memories

Weiss woke up on the mattress that had been placed next to the closet of the guest room. Her right arm was wrapped around her body, as she always used to do, giving herself a little bit more comfort that way. "Ruby?" Weiss whispered into the darkness – it still was before sunrise, although the forest appeared to be a relative dark place in general. When the heiress did not receive an answer, she got up, and found the subject of her whispered calling in bed, the way she left the little rose. Ruby's left hand was conveniently placed on top of the covers, and Weiss knew out of personal experience that one could show one's presence by holding the hand of somebody who was in a coma – or asleep, as in this case. The feeling of guilt still lingered inside the heiress. "This is not my fault," Weiss whispered to herself, "not this time."

Her attempt to drown the guilt in reason did not work out as planned, though. The feeling kept crawling up her spine, time and time again, while the heiress took the liberty of stroking through the red hair of the one person who did not care for her because of her name. Ruby wanted to befriend Weiss from the very first moment they met. And Weiss thought of her as a brat, way too young to attend to Beacon, let alone lead a team of aspiring Huntresses. She called the little rose a dunce, dolt, brain-dead and only the Gods knew the things Weiss left unspoken.

But here Weiss was, holding Ruby's hand and waiting for her very first true friend to wake up. While she was doing so, the heiress did not look anywhere else, but Ruby's face. It was a kind of beauty Weiss had never witnessed before. It did not come from the looks of her partner. Instead, it was Ruby's facial expression, this subtle smile of happiness, in combination with the atmosphere, which the guest room provided: It was a cozy room one could easily relax in during a long winter's night, although it was cramped with things that did not belong there normally.

"Having a nice dream, aren't we?" Weiss asked in a whispering tone, and tilted her head to the right. For all the heiress knew Ruby would not even be woken up by cannon fire right next to her bed. But the eyelids of the little rose fluttered like the wings of butterflies while she was dreaming. When she noticed the movements of Ruby's lips, Weiss leaned closer and tried to what the little rose was saying in her sleep. _Damn it, curiosity. This is no appropriate behavior, why are you even doing this?_ Weiss warned herself. However, the heiress failed to restrain herself from invading Ruby's personal space, and ignored the risk of getting caught completely. To Weiss' disappointment, there were only fragments of words hearable for the heiress, as well as her name. "You're dreaming about me?" Weiss asked aloud.

Suddenly Ruby woke up in surprise, and Weiss barely managed to return to a straight sitting position in time, Ruby's Hand still in her own. Both girls blushed slightly while looking at their fingers, which were intertwined for some reason. Awkward silence befell the room, but neither of them even tried to let go. Several minutes passed, and the sun rose above the outside world, creating golden streams of light through the sunblind, before Weiss finally broke the silence.

"G-good morning, Ruby."

"Morning, Weiss…" Ruby replied, still tired, as the sound of her voice told in a very obvious way.

"Did you… Sleep well?" Weiss asked, trying to guide the situation towards a somewhat normal conversation.

"Y-yes, I did," the younger girl stuttered, still looking at the two hands, "And… And you?"

"Well… As good as possible on a mattress on the floor, I suppose. It takes a bit of getting used to, when you're used to… Higher standards," Weiss announced in an annoyed tone. "Well, do you remember how our first night at Beacon was?" the heiress asked with a silent laughter of amusement.

"Oh, hmm…" Ruby started, and thought about the subject for a few moments. "Yeah, Yang made me introduce myself to Blake, and… Well, I screwed it up, and then you came along, with all the 'Hazard to my health'-thing…" Ruby retold the event of that night.

"That was the first time team RWBY was together…" Weiss commented, neutral in voice and expression.

"Yeah… Awkward, and stupid, and…"

"Hush, Ruby." Weiss put the index of her free hand onto Ruby's lips without second thought. "We've come a long way since then," the heiress added, while the little rose just nodded.

"Especially you, Weiss," Ruby whispered, much to Weiss' surprise.

"Why me?" She asked.

"Well… You're getting all nicer, just a tiny little bit every day, but… Noticeable…" Ruby answered, and looked at the closet shyly. _Are you blushing, Ruby?_ Weiss wondered.

"And what about you?" the heiress asked quietly. "Did you not accomplish great things during our time at Beacon Academy? Did you not become a leader, who earned the respect of her team? Did you not improve your capabilities in fields like history and strategy?" Weiss continued to count the achievements Ruby gained during the last three months, reassuring her young team leader of her competences. The little rose just blushed more for every compliment the heiress managed to point out as such an achievement. _You really are… Amazing…_

Someone knocked on the door, startling both girls that way. They quickly let go of each other, Weiss straightened her position on the chair, after she helped Ruby into a sitting position. "P-please come in…" Weiss spoke up loud enough for their host to hear – who else could it be than Erydias Grey? As the door opened, the heiress did not feel the hostile presence of the Huntress, just like when she realized how Ruby's injury came to be. Weiss knew what was about to follow.

"Good morning, girls," Erydias greeted them, as she closed the door, "I hope you slept well. How do you feel… Ruby, was it?"

"Uhm… I… No pain or something… Hungry…" Ruby started to fiddle around with her fingers in front of her chest while looking on the covers shyly. She showed that very expression right before the 'explosion incident' back on the very first day at Beacon.

"May I take a look at your leg?" Erydias asked, simply not giving a thing about how uncomfortable Ruby might have been. Weiss stood up, and moved out of the way, while Ruby removed the covers from her injury. The bandages had been chanced just recently. Erydias explained that she had been here in the middle of the night to change Ruby's bandages, and had taken the liberty of moving Weiss from the chair onto the mattress, while she removed the bandages from Ruby's leg again. The heiress became pale, as her doing was revealed once more: It was going to leave a mark on Ruby's leg, there was no doubt, and Weiss did not have a clue about the severity of the damage she may or may not have had inflicted. This was a cruel reminder of one thing for her: She needed to tell Ruby the truth, but how? She made herself trustworthy just recently, and now-

"Weiss, you okay?" Ruby asked, pulling the heiress out of her thoughts. Weiss blinked a few times, still looking at the wound in shock. "It… Looks horrible…" She said almost without a sound.

"Under the given circumstances it looks quite good," Erydias meddled into the conversation. "As I assumed, your Aura did a good job at healing the damaged tissue."

"A-and the medication?" Weiss asked hesitantly. She was nervous. The Huntress knew what had happened; what Weiss had done to Ruby. She could destroy the little bit of trust between them with just a simple sentence.

"That is mainly for alleviating Ruby's pain. This kind of injury takes a lot of time to heal properly, but you're lucky: No surgery is required, as far as I can tell," the Huntress explained in her usual professional way. The atmosphere of the room changed to that of a room in a hospital, but less sterile. Weiss used the opportunity to tell Erydias about the arrival of their team members Blake and Yang, while the Huntress tended to Ruby's wound. Erydias did neither comment on this, nor did she show any emotional reaction to the news. She simply wrapped new bandages around Ruby's injured leg – after cleaning the wound thoroughly and carefully.

"Ms. Grey, may I make a request?" Weiss asked, as the Huntress finished her work.

"Go ahead," Erydias stated, while she cleaned up the mess on the bed.

"Can we move Ruby down to the living room?"

"I don't mind," the Huntress answered, already leaving the room with the remainders of slightly bloodied bandages. "Breakfast will be served there then." With these words, she left the girls to themselves again.

"Hmm… She's limping, so… We'll help ourselves?" Ruby asked, grinning awkwardly.

"I do think so… I'll support you on your way down. Do not put any weight on your right leg, Ruby," Weiss commanded as best as she could. However, the heiress could not stand looking into Ruby's eyes for too long.

"Got it, Weiss." Ruby turned to sit on the left side of the bed, and Weiss immediately got to Ruby's right side, took the younger girl's Arm around her own shoulders, and waited until the little rose dared stand up. Weiss did not want to carry Ruby down the stairs because her back still hurt from the last day. And somehow Ruby knew, or at least assumed that, without getting any hint from the heiress. Their journey through the upper floor and staircase of the house took longer than Weiss had anticipated, but it was a good opportunity to take in the details of the area. Aside from the guest room there was a bathroom right next to it – first door on the left – and two other rooms. Their doors were closed, however, so Weiss could only guess that one of these rooms had to be Ms. Grey's Bedroom.

As they arrived in the hallway downstairs, Ruby took a look in the mirror there. "Gray doesn't suit me…" she complained.

"If that's your only concern, you'll probably be up again in no time," Weiss teased, as they went on into the living room. Breakfast had already been served, but Erydias was nowhere to be seen, aside from pictures on the walls. _Didn't notice these before…_ "Oh my gosh! NOW I know who she is!" Ruby shouted all of a sudden, and startled Weiss so much, that she almost dropped Ruby on the floor. "She's the White Knight!" she added joyfully, and tried to jump around in excitement, although both girls immediately regretted that choice. The heiress put Ruby on the couch that she sat on the last day, and tried to calm her partner down. Ruby, however, insisted on taking a look at the armor and weapons in the corner, so Weiss had to move her to the armchair of Ms. Grey.

"Do you even know, we're in a heroine's house right now?" Ruby asked, still excited about her new discovery.

"A what?" Weiss asked confused.

"Heroine… You know… Female word for hero…"

"I know what that word means. What I don't know is: What are you talking about?"

"The leader of team Emerald, Weiss," Ruby answered in disbelief. The way she said it sounded much like Weiss was supposed to know of said team, but she did not. She shook her head slowly, before answering: "I'm sorry, Ruby. I've heard of a team called Emerald before, but I can't quite… Remember… When or where…" As a photo caught the heiress' attention, she lost track of her trail of thought.

Silence befell the room, as Weiss picked up that photo from the shelf, which was standing next to the armor in the corner –flanking it on the left side. The photo showed four young people, three of them Faunus, two of these male. The young men seemed to be in uniform, similar to conventional infantrymen. One of them wore a blue color scheme, the other a red color scheme, much like the blue one. The only explanation for both looking almost exactly like the other could be put into a single word: Twins. They were definitely Faunus, with what looked like ears of shepherd dogs. They fitted to their blonde hair, which was, of course, trimmed short. The young woman in front of the two was also a Faunus, her head adorned with wolf ears, and her eyes were narrow. Her hair was brown, much like the bark of trees, while her clothes bore a pattern of leaves in different colors of green and wood brown – at least the parts around her shoulders did. These were the only ones to be seen on this picture, though. And in the background was the second young woman, wearing a black Fedora, which she had pulled down to cover her face. She also wore a white armor, which looked way too similar to the one standing in Erydias' living room, to be a mere coincidence. The letters E, M, R, and D were written on the bottom side of the frame, and underlined in green. E was written in a somewhat white color, M in blue, R in red, and D in brown.

"See?" Ruby proclaimed in a victory pose. "I told you, she's the leader of that team." "Former leader, that is," Erydias added, before the two girls even noticed the woman, standing in the doorway, as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Weiss immediately put back the photo exactly where it was before, and went back to Ruby. "…Can I have your autograph?" Ruby asked in her squeakiest voice possible. Erydias, though, did not seem to be caught off guard by that.

"Why do you even want that?" the Huntress asked in return, as she took the photo Weiss was inspecting not even a minute ago into her own hands. She did neither sound annoyed, nor angry in any other fashion – just modest.

"I'm a huge fan of all Huntsmen and Huntresses, so… I guess I want it for my collection?" Ruby did not sound very sure about her own answer, but the little rose did not give up on the argument, which was about to begin.

"So, you are a fan, who tries to impersonate the individuals of her desires?" Weiss tensed up at Erydias' question, but it was asked in a joking fashion, much to the heiress' surprise. She was expecting repellent behavior, as the Huntress had greeted her just a day before – but there was nothing of that sort. The Huntress seemed to be very good at hiding her true motivations, or she just needed time to get used to company, even uninvited guests, such as Ruby and Weiss. Either way, Ruby seemed to like this kind of humor, noticeable by her giggles.

"Now, jokes aside: Why are you two out here?" Erydias asked, now serious in her tone. As she sat down on the couch, Ruby started to explain:

"Well, Ma'am… Professor Ozpin sent us – I mean our team – into this area, to cleanse it from a Pack of Beowolves. As far as the Professor knew, the Creatures of Grimm were threatening the farmers around here, so I didn't hesitate to sign us up," the young leader explained proudly.

"You are in charge?" Erydias asked, and lifted her right eyebrow.

"Uhm… Yes!" Ruby answered, even prouder, "The professor assigned me to lead team RWBY."

"Our revered Professor Ozpin seems to have made a rather… Interesting decision here, no offense," was Erydias' only reply to that. Her tone was neutral, most likely on purpose, as she took a very close look at Ruby – much to Weiss' discomfort. Several minutes of almost unbearable silence passed, and just as the Huntress was beginning to say something, the sound of a Bullhead caught the attention of the three.

"They're already here?" Weiss asked aloud.

"Your team mates, I assume?" Erydias inquired. Weiss just nodded. "Then I'll better let them in. One of the two is your sister, Ruby?"

"Yes, Yang is my sister. She doesn't look like it, though." Ruby barely managed to control her excitement about seeing the other half of her team again, as she and Weiss waited in the living room by themselves. Erydias did not even react on Ruby's words, as she left for the door, before Yang even knocked – and it was a wonder, the blonde brawler did not kick it in. Weiss could hear that there were people talking at the door, but understanding anything was impossible for her hearing. "Ruby, you there?!" Yang shouted from the doorway, after that brief moment of silence. _Already back to normal again… Damn it…_

Blake entered the living room first, wearing her usual black and white attire, including the black bow in her hair. Observant, as the quiet member of team RWBY was, she took in the surroundings, and widened her eyes, as they saw the armor in the corner. "No way…" she whispered.

"Blake, what's the hold up?" Yang pushed forward, her partner awfully close in front of herself, but Blake did not mind, by the looks of it. That was nothing new to Weiss, however, since Yang was a very touchy person in general. "Wow… That looks impressive…" she stated after looking at Ruby and Weiss. The blonde had her right upper arm bandaged, and looked bruised here and there. Blake on the other hand seemed to be unscathed by the latest events two days ago – but she looked like she was seeing a ghost in the corner, where the armor was, while Yang did not even noticed it. _Priorities of an older sister…_ Weiss thought to herself, while Ruby and Yang got into one of the closest hugs the heiress could imagine.

"Are you alright, Miss?" Erydias asked. She entered the room a few minutes after team RWBY's reunion, with a black combat skirt, a red cloak, and the rest of Ruby's usual clothes. They had been cleaned and put into a basket neatly. The Huntress was holding that basket while looking at Blake, who did not answer.

"Blake?" Yang asked, and let go of Ruby. She approached her partner slowly, and pulled her into a very gentle hug. Erydias smiled slyly, before putting the basket down, next to her armchair. "Something wrong?"

That last question got Blake's attention back to reality, and she just nodded. "Yes. I just," Blake cleared her throat, as she turned to Erydias, "realized where I am. Thank you, for saving my life, Ms. Grey."

"Say WHAT?!" Yang shouted. "When? Where? How? Oh my god, that's the White Knight's armor…"

"Okay, I've had it," Erydias laughed, and gestured everyone in the room to take a seat, "I think some explanations are in order, so take a seat, please, and I will try to shed some light here, of you don't mind, Ms. Belladonna." Blake just nodded, and sat down right next to Yang on one couch. Weiss had moved Ruby onto the other one, and took a seat there herself, leaving the armchair to Erydias.

"So, this story begins right after my graduation from Beacon Academy, about seven years ago…" Erydias started.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: A matter of pride<strong>

**Author's note: Finally! Took this chapter long enough to finish. Anyway, here you are: Chapter 4 of 'The Outcast'. As usual, feel free to comment and review, as you see fit.**


	5. 05 - A matter of pride

_~Notice: POV changed to Erydias Grey, present~_

As the four Huntresses in training took their seats on my couches, I used the opportunity to take a closer look at these four individuals. The one called Blake drew most of my attention to her, for one obvious reason: We met when she was a child, and I saved her life back then. It pleased me to see her well, but she seemed to be very nervous because I knew what she was hiding under that bow of hers. And while her comrades didn't seem to notice her nervousness, she knew I did; I could see it in her eyes every time we had eye contact. Blake made the impression of being the most experienced of the squad – or team, as it is called these days – I could tell by mere observation. She was well trained and disciplined, maybe even under semi-military conditions, but she didn't seem to be ready for a real fight at that time.

As I learned during our greeting at my doorstep, Yang Xiao Long was her assigned partner. This young woman had a very different impression on me. She reminded me a lot of my two idiots – squad members M and R: Not a care in the world, always happy and smiling, and these wordplays Yang was literally throwing around herself were rather entertaining – at least some of them were – similar to M's boldness and R's insanity in combination, with less imminent danger approaching.

Weiss Schnee, however, seemed to be very irritated by Yang's behavior, especially when the older sister pulled the younger one into a hug with way more strength in it, than needed. Weiss was determined to protect her assigned partner, even from too much love of her family, if necessary. I couldn't tell, whether this originated from guilt for the incident that brought them here in the first place, or had a different, more hidden reason to it. And I wasn't sure why I even bothered.

Then there was Ruby, assigned leader of the bunch. A cheerful, young girl, happy to see friends and family reunited again. But that very cheerfulness bothered me from the moment Yang and Blake entered the room. It had something artificial to it, I thought. Yang was her older sister, as I learned in these few minutes, but she didn't even remotely look like it.

There was something about these four, and especially the bonds connecting them, I didn't understand at the time, but they all shared a past full of sadness and regret. Ruby's cheerfulness, Weiss' scar, Blake's heritage, and Yang's connection to Ruby were something Ozpin must have noticed during their initiation.

I put these thoughts aside for the time being, sorted out my memories of the event I was about to retell, and simply said: "So, this story begins right after my graduation from Beacon Academy, about seven years ago…

The task we were given was quite simple: Head to Forever Fall and investigate reports about an illegal settlement. Back then such things were sadly common, especially when Faunus were involved, but not only. Assuming this settlement existed, and was mainly inhabited by Faunus, Headmaster Ozpin assigned my squad for the task, since three fourths were Faunus. After receiving the coordinates, we boarded the first Bullhead available, without any incidents. Erydias Grey – myself – Marine and Robin Lancaster, the Faunus-twins who resembled dogs, sometimes more, than I even liked, and Diana Woods, a Wolf-Faunus, whose anger-issues were only surpassed by her brutality. Marine wore a blue camouflage-like set of clothing, Robin a similar one in red colors, and Diana an oddly tight leather overall with a brown and green color scheme. We were combat ready, as always, but what awaited us at the target coordinates was more, than we asked for."

I took a brief pause, and gathered my thought once more. Looking at Blake, we both knew neither of us would like what was about to be told.

"What are their weapons like?" Ruby suddenly asked.

"Ruby, our weapons did not matter at all…" I answered slowly, surprising all of my guests. Ruby's enthusiasm vanished, as I continued.

"They did not matter, because all we found were houses, almost burnt to the ground, dead people in the middle of them all, and evidence, that Atlas, my homeland, was responsible for that… Massacre."

I needed to stop again in order to regain my composure, which I almost lost again, as I lost it back then.

"Wow… So, what happened next?" Yang asked calmly. I noticed her comforting Blake, who was on the verge of tears, as I tore up this old wound of hers.

"Well, as soon, as we learned, that Atlas soldiers had done this, I ordered my squad to search for survivors. I used to be proud of myself until that point of time, and so I just stood there, in front of a pile of dead bodies. I tried to contact the Academy, to tell them, what we had discovered, but I was at a loss of words. How does one describe such an atrocity, when witnessing it for the first time?"

I just shook my head, while I took a break again. My living room was dead silent, much like the settlement I had stood in.

"After I finally said what needed to be said, I started to separate the bodies from each other. I just felt the need to bury these people, at least. No, it was my Duty to do so. I just finished burying the first, a young man, when my squad called me over to one of the ruined houses. I was surprised to see that it was relatively intact, and I learned, someone was inside: Young Blake, as we later discovered, but we already knew, it was a child. The others thought it best to let me do the talking, since I could handle children relatively well – sadly it was true. I'm sorry, Blake."

I realized that I forced her to tell the other three girls of her heritage. As she silently removed the black bow, uncovering her cat ears in the process, all of us stayed silent. No Gasp, no comment, nothing was said, until she nodded to me, and I continued:

"I entered the house, unarmed and without my armor, except for the boots. The child cried, so it was easy to find her hideout. As I entered her bedroom, she hid under her bed, and I started to talk to her."

I did not dare re-enact what had happened in said bedroom. Blake was crying, held by Yang, who whispered into her ear, while Ruby and Weiss just laid a hand on each of Blake's shoulders, the former supported by the latter. I saw it before my inner eye:

* * *

><p>I kneeled down, tried to look under the bed, little Blake had hidden under, and repeatedly told her that I did not mean her any harm. The girl just tried to stay out my sight so hard, I was on the verge of giving up, because it was getting dark, and Creatures of Grimm were probably on their way to feast on the corpses of all these people. I had the idea of luring her out with food, so I opened my pouch in order to find something, a child would have liked to have; and found a cookie. I placed it on a plate that I fetched from the kitchen, put said plate right next to the bed, so little Blake could get it, without leaving her hideout, and waited almost a full hour.<p>

"I don't like chocolate cookies…" I heard the girl say. She had crawled towards me, but stayed under the bed, as I anticipated.

"Me neither, but Robin always puts some into my pouch," I answered. Conversation was the key to earn her trust, or at least scatter her fears for a bit.

"Is Robin your friend?"

"Yes. And he is like you."

"Ten?"

"No, a Faunus."

"Did you give him cookies?"

"No."

"So, why is he your friend? You're a human."

That was the critical moment. Her parents had probably told her that humans are bad in general, and her latest experience with them was not helping me either.

"I had to earn his friendship," I started to explain, "and he gave me a hard time doing so. You know, humans are afraid of you."

"Why?" the little one asked.

"Because you're different than them. You can do things, they can't," I continued. At least she seemed to be opening up a bit, regardless of her traumatizing experience there. Now she was making eye contact.

"Like seeing in the dark?" She asked again, and I nodded. "But they are always mean to us," she said afterwards, and I could not blame her, because it was true.

"Most of them are, yes."

"Were you ever mean to Robin?"

"Yes, and Robin was mean to me, from time to time, but we both didn't mean it. We were joking."

"Oh… Where is he?" Little Blake was finally getting out of her hideout, and stood right in front of the bed, looking at me. I had taken a seat on the floor under the window, relatively far away from the door.

"He's right outside. You can go talk to him, if you want to," I offered, but she declined the offer. Instead, she picked up the plate, and started eating the cookie.

"I was lying, to make you go away," she admitted. "You're stubborn."

"Patient is what I am, as well," I added to her statement. "Does it taste good?"

"Yes, thank you." While she was eating the cookie, we continued talking. The brave girl knew she was the only survivor of this slaughter, and I managed to convince her, to pack up a few things and come with us. I made sure she got to a good orphanage.

* * *

><p>I felt the same shame, as I felt while being in little Blake's bedroom. On one hand I was very happy to see her, grown up to a beautiful young lady with human friends who care for her. On the other hand her past, and the short time I was a part of it, saddened me deeply. Yang's voice drew me out of my thoughts, back to the present.<p>

"Hey there, Kitty Cat… It's alright…" she said, as she still comforted Blake in a way much closer than comrades or friends. I could not imagine the kind of storm of emotions Blake had to endure in that moment. I stood up, walked towards the quartet, and placed my left hand on top of Blake's head, and she stopped crying in that very moment.

"I am sorry." That was all I could whisper, all I needed to say… It was all I had to say. The poor girl literally lost everything, and suffered ever since.

"I am, too…" Weiss whispered. Her comrades, however, seemed not to have heard her, or they did not recognize it. Minutes passed like hours, before Blake eventually calmed down. She looked at me, and my whole body shuddered. There was no hatred in her eyes, neither was there any mistrust, just sadness beyond any words I could muster.

"I should have told you sooner, guys," Blake said, and wanted to continue, but was interrupted by Yang. "Nah, it's fine… Kitty Cat."

"Please, stop calling me that…" Blake raised a plea. Yang just smiled, and I could see the kind of affection between these two, but it was not up to me to judge.

"Okay… Sorry…" the blonde answered calmly. "Are we ready to go, team?" she asked afterwards, and the other three just nodded.

So, team RWBY left my little house in the middle of nowhere. As I watched them enter the Bullhead, Weiss waved back at me, out of courtesy, I assumed. Yang and Ruby seemed not to think about it, they were just too happy to see each other again, while Blake did not dare look at me, for the reason she was able to actually be in that vehicle.

* * *

><p><strong>The next Chapter: Homecoming<strong>

**Author's Note: A long time ago, I started to create a storyline, and wanted to share it with other people. Since then, said storyline changed many times, especially this very chapter, for which I apologize. I wrote this many times, and didn't like one of the outcomes. But at last, the journey continues, so enjoy, leave comments, and most importantly: Criticize constructively.**


	6. 06 - Homecoming

_~Notice: POV changed to Weiss Schnee, present~_

Weiss looked around the Bullhead, after she and Yang helped Ruby getting in very carefully. After that the medical team took her over, and started treatment even before the take-off. Weiss tried to stay by her partner's side, but she was convinced that she probably would be in the way of the medical team, and therefore took a seat as close to Ruby, as possible. Yang and Blake did something similar, but since Blake had not fully recovered from the retelling of her past yet, they kept a bit of a distance, Blake almost sitting on Yang's lap.

"Hey, Weiss," Yang spoke up shortly after the Bullhead had successfully taken off, "you alright over there?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Weiss answered, smiling to Yang politely. She noticed Blake slowly taking a hold of Yang's hand, similar to the way she had held Ruby's hand this very morning: Blake's palm on the back of Yang's hand, and fingers intertwined. And while she looked at this for a short time, the heiress wondered: _Does it just look like it, or are they… _"We'll explain in time, Weiss." Yang kept it quiet, so Ruby would not get curious while she was being treated.

"Oh… Sorry… I have another question, though: What about our Mission? We were supposed to deal with these Beowolves, remember?" Weiss changed the topic, knowing how to handle delicate subjects of any kind.

"After hearing what happened to us back then, Professor Ozpin decided to let Jaun and the others, under the leadership of a team of seasoned Huntsmen deal with this… What's it called again?" Yang answered, and tried to think of the word she was missing. Blake offered some assistance: "It is called a merged pack, Yang."

"Ah, yes! That would explain why there were so many of them," Weiss concluded. _Three or four packs brought under one Beowolf Alpha…Frightening…_ she thought. "So they are already here?"

"Yup. The veterans took JNPR, and started to track down the pack from the same spot we started," Yang answered, uncouth as ever.

"Who were they?" Weiss asked; curiosity just got the better of her. _What are the odds of her old squad being this close to her again?_

"Ah, I don't know. Four dudes from Atlas, I think, graduated about two or three years ago… Nothing special about them, if you ask me."

"I see…" _The odds are low, I suppose._

"So… What exactly happened to Ruby's leg?" Yang asked after a moment of Silence.

"Oh, hum… I'm not quite sure, how it happened…" Weiss started to cover her incompetence by telling parts of the truth for the time being. She was well aware that the full extent of her failure had to be revealed eventually, but now, with Blake's current emotional state, it seemed to be a bad decision – another failure – that had to be avoided. The medical staff would realize what caused the injury sooner or later, but for now, it did not matter.

"And what's your idea?" Yang kept pressing the matter, as if she was suspecting something already, and to make things worse, Blake looked the part. _Just give it up, Weiss… For her…_

"Well… There's only one option left, if one of the Beowolves did not cut her leg open… Which would be…" She stayed silent for minutes, while Blake looked at the heiress patiently, and kept Yang from doing anything else by just holding the blonde brawler's hand. "…She may have stumbled into her own blade… Or mine, for all I know…" _Damn it, Weiss. Why?_

"Now is not the time, Yang. Let her rest," Blake said to her partner calmly, saving the heiress in the process, maybe even intentionally. Weiss' Faunus friend was always the quiet observer, and maybe she could read body language or tone of voice in order to judge her counterpart; Blake probably knew what Weiss was telling without actually saying it.

"Okay, looks good. Ms. Schnee, you may come over to Ms. Rose and talk to her, as you wished earlier," the leading medic proclaimed the finished treatment; just in time before an awkward silence befell the aircraft. The members of the medical team started talking among themselves, as Weiss moved over to Ruby.

"Hey, is everything fine?" the heiress asked quietly, in a very gentle tone, and smiled at Ruby.

"I'm as fine, as I could be. We were both really lucky, you know?" Ruby answered.

"You're right, I suppose." _More, than you even realize, Ruby… I hope._

"So… How long does it take to get home?"

"Hmm… I'm not sure. I slept on the way into these parts," Weiss answered. "If I had to guess, I would say something between two and four hours." Ruby rolled her eyes and groaned, already bored by watching the ceiling. "I've got an idea." Weiss left Ruby with these words, and made her way back to Yang and Blake, who were not really far away. Blake seemed to be asleep, leaning against the blonde's shoulder, and was simply caressed by the brawler's left hand.

"'Sup, Weiss," Yang greeted her, without even looking up; Blake was more interesting than a dancing Ursa to the brawling blonde; a fitting comparison in the heiress' opinion. "Is everything okay with Ruby?"

"Yes, she's fine, but already bored…" Weiss sighed, "Do you have anything to keep her occupied with?"

"Hmmm… Nope. And my hands are occupied." Yang's grin was wider than the heiress had ever seen until that point. _There's always room for improvement…_

"Well, what about the one your Hands are occupied with?" Weiss asked, slightly harsh in tone, but she did not mean it this time. What made her tone of voice become this way was yet to be revealed. "She probably has a book on her that we could borrow; if she doesn't mind, of course."

"You heard her, Blakey… Do you have a book with you?" Yang asked the Faunus girl next to her, whispering the words in a most caring way, almost too silent to be heard. Blake opened one eye, and looked up to Yang.

"Mh? A book? Sure, left pouch…" Blake said wearily, and pulled a small, black book out of said pouch. She handed it over to Weiss, who took the liberty of reading the title and the blurb.

"Oh, that sounds dark," the heiress stated.

"It has a lot of soul to it," Yang answered, grinning sheepishly at the simultaneous answer of both Weiss and Blake. "Really?" The heiress shook her head, but smiled about it. _Of course, you couldn't resist. _Inspecting the book a little further, Weiss noticed Blake's bookmark, which was placed inside the first quarter of the pages. She had to tell Ruby to leave it in its place.

"Thank you both." Weiss already started to make her way back to Ruby.

"Don't mention it," Blake answered, before leaning on Yang again, her eyes already closed.

_Being reminded of such a thing, and being forced to reveal such a secret must be exhausting,_ the heiress thought to herself, and looked at the book again. She wondered, if this dark themed story was, what Ruby would like, or if it was even appropriate for 15 year olds. As she returned to her young team leader, Weiss immediately handed over the book. "How about reading to pass the time?" Weiss asked her partner.

"Anything to pass the time, partner!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly. However, the word 'partner' echoed through the heiress' mind for a while, with a bitter taste to it. She still was not sure, if Ruby knew about how her injury came to be, or not. It was a bittersweet reminder of what must be done eventually. But how? How could Weiss possibly tell her team, that Ruby's current state of health was the responsibility of none other than the heiress?

"Is this Blake's?" Ruby asked, after inspecting the book, handling it a bit more carefully than necessary.

"Yes, and she has a bookmark placed inside. Please leave it, where it is."

"Okay." Without further hesitation, Ruby started reading. Weiss stayed at the little rose's side, but got tired after a while. "You should sleep now, Weiss. No need to look after me here," the little rose said, putting one hand on the heiress' shoulder. "And you look like you need it."

"Well, there's something on my mind, that would keep me from resting, even if I tried," Weiss answered, but could not keep up the eye contact with Ruby.

"We're your teammates, your friends, Weiss. Whatever it is, if you told us, we certainly could help you."

"That's exactly the most difficult part about it…" the heiress merely whispered.

"Huh? I don't get it."

"I… Need to think this through properly, before talking to you guys about it. I don't want you to misunderstand me."

"You really are difficult, Weiss," Ruby teased the heiress, smiling with an honesty that almost hurt.

"That is true, I suppose…" Weiss answered. "So, how do you like the story so far?" She tried to change the subject, needed a distraction. And luckily, Ruby fell for it. She told the heiress about the series the book in question was part of, and that she tried to get a hold of the first three volumes, but could not obtain them, because of the age rating of 16 for the series.

"And the worst part is: I AM almost 16!" Ruby complained loudly.

"Hush, Ruby. Blake is trying to sleep." Weiss tried to calm Ruby. When is your birthday, anyway?" It was a good opportunity to learn something of value about the little rose, although the heiress did not quite realize, why she was interested in this information.

"Hmm…Exactly two weeks from now on," Ruby explained, and winked at Weiss. "If someone were to get me a copy of this, I would be very happy about it."

"Maybe I'll give Jaun a little hint in this general direction," Weiss tried to deceive Ruby about her intentions. Whether or not she was successful, the heiress could not tell.

The time passed relatively fast, and without any noteworthy incidents Team RWBY returned to Beacon Academy safe and sound – aside from Ruby's injury. Blake triple checked the correct fit of her bow, while Weiss made sure, Ruby would not fall off the gurney, without actually strapping her onto it. Yang just stayed by Blake, reassured her that nobody could see anything, they were not supposed to see.

None other than Professor Ozpin himself greeted the returners at the landing bay, and joined them on their way to the Academy's hospital ward. "I am relieved to see you all made it back safely. And I need to apologize for the lack of information that led to Ms. Rose's current condition," he said in his typical calm tone.

"I am sure the fact that we were after a merged pack of Beowolves did not simply slip your mind, Sir," Weiss answered. She did not want to talk about Ruby's leg for as long as possible.

"Weiss, that was harsh, even for you," Yang meddled into the conversation.

"Well… Ah, it's the stress talking. Sorry, Professor."

"No harm done, Ms. Schnee," the Headmaster replied as calm as always, "However, I do need a report about the events of the last two days, students," he added.

"You can have it right away, Sir," Ruby started, and before anyone could even try to intervene, the young leader of Team RWBY bubbled along about how she and Weiss fought off dozens of Grimm, and how the met Erydias Grey. As soon as that name was spoken, Professor Ozpin took the liberty of interrupting Ruby.

"Ms. Rose, are you certain it was her?"

"Yeah. The armor is unique in every respect. It's white, it's awesome, and it's still in fighting shape, like her."

"Ah, I see. Could you please describe her as detailed as you can, my dear?"

"Well, she looks a lot like Weiss, with the scar on the right eye, which is blind, a bustier chest, taller, and very kind."

Weiss looked her partner, surprised by such a statement, and slightly insulted by it. _Any chest is 'bustier' than mine, dolt. And why do you even care about such things?_ Weiss crossed her arms in front of her chest subconsciously.

Professor Ozpin nodded at Ruby. "Ms. Schnee," he then asked, "do you have anything to add to Ms. Rose's explanation?"

"She was very… Hostile to me, on the one hand. On the other hand, she was kind enough to help Ruby, even without questioning anything. I think she wanted to be left alone for some reason." Considering Ms. Grey's connection to Blake, Weiss had an idea what that reason could have been, but she did not dare bring up that topic again.

"This antagonism fits her very well…" Professor Ozpin thought to himself aloud, and looked at Ruby again. "I would like to learn more about this meeting, Ms. Rose, but I'm afraid I have other matters to attend to." The hallway they were in split up into the one leading to the dorms, the one leading to Professor Ozpin's office, and the one leading to the hospital ward. Blake and Yang promised Ruby to visit her the next morning as soon as possible, while the Headmaster said his goodbyes for the day, and walked towards his office.

Weiss followed the duo to their dorm room in silence. The heiress just wasted two opportunities to tell her team the truth, but it was not the time for things like that. Blake still seemed to be shaken up by the events in the forest, and Yang did her best to comfort her.

"Oh, by the way," Yang explained after they entered their dorm room, "we're a couple." Having said that, Yang pulled Blake into one of her big hugs, and they exchanged a gentle, but short kiss, as if they wanted to demonstrate it properly.

"I figured that much…" Weiss said, already distracted by the sight of her warm, cozy bed.

"Well, that's a surprise," Yang said, as she parted with Blake, who sat on her bed.

"Excuse me?"

"I thought, you were all like 'how dare you, you're both girls, you're not supposed to have this kind of relationship, and don't you dare look at my butt', etc." Yang explained, gesturing around in a most exaggerating manner. Weiss just shook her head again. _This is becoming more interesting by the minute._

"And your… Girlfriend… Doesn't mind you, talking about it like she isn't around?"

"We agreed to let her do the talking," Blake now answered, sighed, and smiled at Yang happily, but weary. The blonde just smiled back.

"It will require a lot of getting used to, and I'm already uncomfortable when I think of being seen in my undergarments…"

"Hey, we're attracted to women, not perverts," Yang defended their cause.

"Why are we even having this discussion?"

"Because one: You should know, and two: There's no Ruby around for you to discuss something with," Yang explained. Weiss felt the guilt crawling up her spine again. It needed to be done, and the heiress was constantly reminded about it.

"Does she know about this?" Weiss asked, and sighed afterwards.

"We confessed just yesterday, so no, you're the first to know about us," Blake answered in Yang's stead, and grabbed the blonde brawler's hand, before she had the time to react.

"Well… I'm tired, so let's finish this tomorrow. By the way, Blake wants some of your attention, Yang, I think." Said Faunus was sitting on her bed, and looked at Yang both pleading and demanding. The couple started to cuddle, as the heiress entered the bathroom. "I'm getting changed – no peaks!" she proclaimed, but the two lovebirds she was sharing a room with did not even try to pay attention to her. They were a welcome distraction, but only for so long…

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: The dare of truth<br>**


	7. 07 - The dare of truth

A peaceful night has passed and Weiss opened her eyes to gaze at the bottom side of her partner's still empty bed. Ruby has been brought to the infirmary for further treatment of her leg – the wound caused by none other than the heiress herself. So many unanswered questions came so suddenly to her attention that Weiss almost jumped out of her bed, and rushed into the bathroom. Her sudden movement must have raised some suspicion among the two lovers on the other side of the room, who happened to share the lower of their improvised bunk beds. At least they had the decency to not keep the heiress awake with pillow talk or anything similar. Weiss remembered Blake crying a bit when they entered their dorm room, and Yang comforting the upset Faunus girl by whispering nice things – as far as Weiss could tell – into her girlfriend's ears. So there it was; the first question: Why did Weiss pay so much attention to the interactions between the lovers, who were her team mates, her friends? It was a nice thing to witness, but those matters also require, and demand a certain degree of privacy and discretion.

But as soon as Weiss looked into the mirror, this trail of thought was cast aside by the sheer feeling of disgust, and the heiress knew exactly where that feeling originated. She simply could not look into the mirror without the immediate reminder of her… Crime? Was that the correct term? No, it could not be, since it was an accident. But then again, the guilt behind this hailstorm of emotions that ran through her mind and body had to have a reason. Why was she feeling that guilty? Was it the severity of the wound that was caused? Could it be that the victim was the reason behind all this confusion? Ruby Rose was just so young, innocent, but simple minded as well. But that was what made Ruby… Ruby. Of course Weiss would not like it any different, but then again: Why? Yet, another question with no answer.

The heiress could not stand looking into her own face any longer, and decided to take an unusually early shower, since she was in the bathroom anyway. As she removed her clothing, Weiss noticed that she did not even bother getting out of her combat skirt, let alone wash herself before going to bed when she returned. _What time is it?_ She looked around for the alarm clock that could provide the answer, and it was exactly 5 a.m. At least that question could be answered, but it was followed by another one. _How am I going to tell them…?_ Weiss froze in place as ice cold water hit her bare and pale skin; the thought washed away with the dirt, but her mind was still not silenced, not even by the flow of the water.

How in Remnant could Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the one expected to become the best of best Huntresses, have made a mistake like that?

_I'm sorry._

How could she fail all those expectations in mere seconds of her life?

_I did save her. I took responsibility for my actions._

How could she betray her team leader –not to mention partner – in such a way?

_She knows, what happened. Maybe she knows better than accuse me for anything._

How could she be this afraid of the consequences?

_Ruby is our leader, our friend. If they find out about what I've done, I…_

* * *

><p>Taking her usual time showering, it was half an hour later when the heiress re-emerged from the now somewhat steamy bathroom. However, she was not even remotely satisfied with the results of the shower; her body was cleaned up, but the stains of failure still remained, especially on her hands. Weiss was greeted by a smirking Yang. The blonde brawler started to grin in amusement as the heiress made sure the towel that covered her did not show anything it was not supposed to show.<p>

"Morning, princess," the blonde hailed the white haired girl.

"Shouldn't you call her that?" the latter asked in return, pointing at the still sleeping black haired Faunus. Trying to behave as usual seemed to be the best way to actually getting used to a couple like that in the very dorm room the heiress spent her nights in. Weiss was grateful for Yang being awake already. Her thoughts were finally silenced, at least for the time of this conversation.

"Her nickname is another one. Don't want to cause a commotion." Both girls then just smiled at each other, before Weiss hesitantly started to put on her school uniform. As the heiress looked around, she noticed that Yang was inspecting the ceiling for some reason.

"Is there anything up there?" Weiss asked.

"Nope, just looking away. Courtesy and stuff…" Yang admitted, still grinning about the situation, the heiress assumed. It was possible that similar situations were happening on a daily basis in the dorm room across the hallway, where the members of team JNPR reside.

"Oh, okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Weiss laid finishing touches to her uniform, her pony tail including the little tiara at the bottom of it and other accessories, before taking her leave. "Where're you going?" Yang asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to visit Ruby; see if she's okay," Weiss answered, once again only telling part of the truth. The rest of it was plain simple, however: Weiss needed answers to her many questions, and she hoped that Ruby could provide some at least. The heiress looked back, since her brawling team mate did not give an answer. Yang, in the mean time, had one hand and her mouth occupied by Blake, and therefore answered with a simple thumb up of her free hand. "Oh, Dust, please! Let me at least close the door first…" Weiss complained, and just did what she already intended to do.

At this time of day there was hardly anyone awake. Weiss could not understand why Ruby would be up so early. On the other hand, Ruby still had some trouble getting along with other students, since she was at minimum two years younger than any other student of Beacon. Maybe the little rose was using this time of day to explore the Academy, without the risk of an awkward social encounter. The heiress got closer to the infirmary sooner than anticipated, and Ruby was… Already expecting her? The young team leader was sitting on her bed, and reading the book, Blake lent her. But as soon as Weiss entered the room, Ruby closed the book, put in on the end table, and prepared for… Something. _Surprised to see me?_ Weiss tried to brace herself for anything.

"Good morning, Weiss," Ruby greeted her partner as she arrived at the side of the bed.

"Good morning, Ruby." _So far, so normal._ Weiss soon noticed a sudden change of atmosphere in the already cold room. Ruby was definitely angry, for only one reason Weiss could imagine.

"You're early," the young one said awfully calmly. _Gods, help me please._

"Well, I couldn't sleep," the heiress answered nervously, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

"Oh, why is that?" Ruby asked in return, locking eyes with Weiss. _Now or never! She already got you anyway._

"Ehm… Because of what happened in the forest, I think." Weiss inhaled sharply, but silently, as she braced herself for Ruby's answer, that would be full of anger.

"You mean my leg?" Ruby seemed to assume, but Weiss already knew better. _Thank you, Ruby… That makes this a lot easier… I hope._

"…Yes…" Weiss admitted silently. She started to break eye contact with Ruby, but decided to keep looking at her partner, no matter how ashamed the heiress felt. "I hope you can forgive me…" But Ruby did not say anything. Under the assumption, her partner wanted an explanation, Weiss continued after a short time.

"I just thought there was a Beowolf right in front of me, so I struck. I couldn't… I didn't want to… I don't know why I didn't see you there, or else I-"

"You would've redirected the strike, just as you did in Emerald Forest, yes?" Ruby interrupted Weiss.

"…Yes, something along those lines… Ruby, I know that I almost killed you…" Weiss wanted to take a brief pause, but Ruby used the opportunity to speak up.

"And I already said: I risked it in order to save you. Did you really forget that?" Ruby asked, still not the slightest sign of anger in her voice. Weiss hesitated for a couple of minutes, but nodded eventually. "I'm sorry, Weiss. I caused you a lot of trouble with Yang, I think, and-"

"She doesn't know…" Weiss now interrupted Ruby, as impolite as it was, but this one thing had to be clarified.

"Weiss…" Ruby whispered, and grabbed the heiress by her forearm. Weiss froze in place again, and was pulled into a gentle hug. She did not even try to resist this assault on her personal space, as she usually did. Hearing the calm breath of Ruby next to her left ear made the heiress more comfortable than anything she could imagine in that moment. Questions still remained in her head, but they were different and less frightening.

How did she deserve such kindness?

_That's Ruby, the kindest soul I know._

How did Ruby know what to do?

_She's acting instinctively, I suppose._

As Weiss wanted to wrap her arms around Ruby, the little rose pushed the heiress away as gently as she had pulled her into the hug before, much to Weiss' surprise. "Thank you, Ruby. I think I just needed that," Weiss said in order to prevent a moment of awkward silence.

"Everyone needs a hug from time to time," Ruby answered, and smiled sheepishly, a slight tone of pink on her cheeks. _Are you blushing again?_

"Looks, like you're right… Anyway, I need to go now. It's almost seven," Weiss noted, and stood up.

"Don't be afraid of her," Ruby reassured the heiress, holding her hand just as they did in the house of the heroine Erydias Grey. Weiss hesitantly pulled her hand away, and made for the cafeteria. It was time for breakfast, and she still had to confront the flaming wrath of a big sister – quite literally in this case.

* * *

><p>"Hey, there you are!" Yang shouted, as Weiss entered the culinary center of Beacon Academy. The blonde brawler was sitting at their usual table, Blake cheek to cheek on Yang's left side, both attending more to the scroll in front of them, than to their meals. "You have to see this!" Yang added. "It's about your dad's company!"<p>

Weiss made haste to Yang's right side, but maintained a respectful distance of about three fingers to the blonde's cheek, as she watched a live feed by the news.

-=**The Emerald Ghosts strike again!**=- was running on the bottom of the screen, in the news ticker that always sums up the latest events of Vale and all of Remnant alike. Behind the reporter Weiss could clearly see a warehouse of the Schnee Dust Company, and she knew it was #12; one of the larger storages of Dust the company had inside the city of Vale. Many of the large containers were knocked over, clearly the result of fighting between, no, over them.

-=With me now is Amadeus Moss, the security guard who was on duty last night. Thank you for your time, Mr. Moss,=- the reporter greeted a man in his 30s, still in uniform, and a bit shaken up by the events that had occurred the night before.

-=Sure thing, Miss,=- he answered.

-=So, Mr. Moss. Can you tell us what happened here last night?=-

-=Yes, yes… I was in my booth, watching the camera feeds, when I noticed the pattern of one of them was kind of… Off. So I went to that particular area to see what's going on, and I saw all these masked people preparing containers to be hooked onto Bullheads.=- The man underlined his explanations with overdone gestures. _Let him have his 15 minutes,_ Weiss thought to herself, while still listening to the interview.

-=Did you get a closer look at them? Did they wear a certain kind of mask?=- the reporter asked, and Weiss could feel Blake tense up for unknown reasons, even though Yang was still between the Faunus and herself.

-=Grimm masks,=- the security guard said, -=and they wore the symbol of White Fang; the new, red one, actually.=- Blake almost spat on the table, as she hit it with both fists. She was on the verge of tears, but this time they were tears of anger, rage even. Yang focused on Blake's emotional outburst, and left the cafeteria with her girlfriend. The brawler left the scroll with Weiss, so she could finish watching the interview. The heiress hated the White Fang herself, but she still had to wonder, why Blake got this furious about them. That could wait, however, because neither Mr. Moss, nor the reporter would wait for Weiss to finish her trail of thought.

-=And then, out of nowhere, a masked man appeared right in front of me!=- he explained with a mixture of fear and relief.

-=Did the man look any different than the White Fang members in the storage area? And did the man say anything, Mr. Moss?=- the reporter asked calmly.

-=Yes. He was wearing greenish camouflage or something, and a black woolen mask with something like a skull painted on the front side it. He ordered me to stay where I was, or I would get into the crossfire.=-

-=What kind of crossfire?=-

-=An ambush, by the sounds of it. I heard another man shout 'Surprise!' The one in front of me was gone, while I tried to make out, where the shout came from. And I did as he said: Stay back for my own safety.=- Mr. Moss admitted.

-=Why exactly did you stay back?=- the reporter asked curiously.

-=Well, those guys beat the thieves up good, and they were three, the one who kept me out of that fight, the other one, and a woman. They appeared out of nowhere, and started fighting White Fang. As far as I could see, all three were using Aura enhanced techniques, and weaponry I've only seen Huntsmen and Huntresses use. That's why I stayed back.=- The security guard started to look like he was feeling uncomfortable. Tiredness and shock of the events probably started to take their tolls on the poor man, and even the reporter noticed that. So the interview was stopped at that point, and further information about the Emerald Ghosts was given in its stead.

It was said that this group of renegades were former Huntsmen who decided to take the law into their own hands, especially when Faunus were involved. Their acts of self proclaimed justice created two kinds of opinions throughout the population of Vale, humans and Faunus alike. One group appreciated their efforts regarding the equality of Faunus, the other group feared another White Fang in the making, since that's almost the same way the once peaceful organization had become the violent group it was now, let alone taking crime fighting into their own hands was not really legal. Since the Emerald Ghosts tended to appear out of nowhere, anywhere, and without warning, they earned a reputation mixed of fear and mistrust, but were respected by many people for doing what was right. They helped simple Faunus citizens who were harassed by others, and vice versa, caught criminal elements who acted violently against Faunus and humans alike, and even disrupted larger heists like the one of last night. Many other things about them were speculation, especially their number. Weiss, however, was sure that the Emerald Ghosts consisted of only three individuals; three certain individuals, she had seen on a photo. Weiss started wondering if Ms. Grey knew about these events, but came to the conclusion that she did not, since she had no means of communication to the world outside her house in the north eastern forests.

Looking at the clock, Weiss realized that it was almost time for the first lecture, and she did not even have a decent breakfast, yet. A green apple had to do the trick, while she was already on her way to history class with Professor Ooblek; Yang's scroll in hand, the intention of bringing it to its owner more than obvious. With no further distractions provided by her surroundings, though, the thoughts of the morning slowly returned to Weiss, including the shivers of fear, regarding the confrontation she would be having with Yang sooner or later. _Don't be afraid of her…_ Weiss repeated Ruby's words inside her mind. It was going to be long day.

**The next chapter: Aftermath**


	8. 08 - Aftermath

_Don't be afraid of her…_ The more often Weiss thought about it, the more afraid the heiress became. During and between the lectures there were several opportunities to tell Yang and Blake what had occurred back in the forest to the north east. However, she managed to let them slip away by apathy – every single one of them. Now she was sitting inside one of Beacon Academy's Bullheads, heading to the very warehouse that had been the scene of the battle between White Fang and the Emerald Ghosts.

Professor Ozpin intercepted the three members of team RWBY in front of Oobleck's classroom, and asked them to investigate the events at warehouse #12 of the Schnee Dust Company. His reason seemed to be an assumption, the heiress had herself: The Emerald Ghosts were the former members of Ms. Grey's old squad. Even though preventing a terrorist organization such as White Fang from finishing a heist this size, Huntsmen going rogue still meant bad news and reputation for the Academy, not to mention every other Huntsman and Huntress.

He placed Weiss herself in charge of this investigation, and she felt very uncomfortable with it. Surely, involving her would make getting into the storage facility of her father's company a lot easier, but leading an actual mission for Beacon Academy, gaining either prestige or shame – depending on the results and performance – for herself and her team in the process was a responsibility; the heiress was not ready for that. But on the other hand, neither was Ruby, when Professor Ozpin made her leader of team RWBY, but this decision turned out to be just the right thing for the team. Maybe it was the same with the current one.

As the bullhead approached a landing site not far from the facility, Weiss and her 'subordinates' could take a look at the battlefield from afar. Containers had been thrown around like toys, most of them damaged, but the contents still inside, while some Dust had been scattered around the storage area outside the warehouse itself; shattered vials and broken crystals.

"So," Yang finally broke the silence, "why exactly are we here again? These guys could have gone gods know where by the time, we arrived here."

"First of all, the Professor wants to know if it's actually the three remaining members of the old squad lead by Ms. Grey or somebody else, I think," Weiss answered to the complaint. She questioned the use of this endeavor herself, however. All they could possibly find were traces of Dust powered weaponry, or maybe a bullet case – if the police did overlook such a thing, that is. "And secondly it's about the reason: What White Fang needs those amounts of Dust for?"

"So, what's the plan, princess?" Yang asked, while they were approaching the warehouse. Blake walked at the brawler's left side, as close as possible, while Weiss went in front of her team mates.

"First, we get inside the warehouse. There, we will look for anything – and I mean literally anything – out of the ordinary. We'll note everything, taking pictures, and take those back to the Professor. That shouldn't take too long, I hope," Weiss explained, stopping and turning to the other two while doing so. "After that, we'll perform the same procedure in the outside storage area surrounding the warehouse itself."

"A solid plan, actually," Blake commented, and Yang just nodded in acknowledgement.

"Let's get to it, then." Weiss proceeded towards the gates of the storage facility. Getting access was as easy as the heiress had anticipated: Exchanging a few pleasantries with the security officer in charge, explaining the situation, and they were already inside warehouse #12. The remnants of the battlefield in front of the building had already been picked clean by the law enforcing authorities, as expected. On the first look inside the warehouse, though, everything seemed to be in order – except for the forensic unit still doing their job. The officer in charge took a look at the three girls, as they entered the scene.

"You're the Huntresses?" he asked harshly.

"Yes, sir," Weiss answered politely. _He is just doing his job, Weiss. Leave him be._

"Well, alright. We're almost finished, and as soon as the report is ready, your Professor shall receive a copy of it. So, why did he send you here, regardless?" the man asked.

"We are tasked with looking for evidence regarding the whereabouts of the Emerald Ghosts, if I may call them that." Weiss tensed up. The officer did not like the meddling of the Academy, for obvious reasons, and Weiss could see it in his face.

"You really think they are Huntsmen, don't you?"

"I'd prefer not to talk about assumptions, sir."

"Alright… You can go, and do, as you please," the man said, "AFTER we're done here. So, would you please enter that break room over there, and wait for about an hour? And don't leave it, unless it's necessary."

Without any sort of protest, team RWBY followed the order of the police officer, and waited for their turn to take a look around the warehouse.

"Weiss, can I ask you something?" Blake spoke up suddenly.

"Of course," the heiress replied, while already taking a look at the surroundings through the windows of the break room, which did not have a ceiling of its own. Blake and Yang were doing the same. The three Huntresses in training were looking at a gigantic hall with at least eighteen enormous racks in it. The racks were all painted in the colors of the Schnee Dust Company, and filled with pallets of boxes, which contained the stored wares in them: Dust.

"Is there… Something else stored in here, except for Dust?"

"No. My father likes to keep everything ordered, especially as far, as Dust is concerned. Other wares of the company are stored in the other warehouses."

"I wonder if there will be anything for us to find, when they're done," Yang said, while getting a coffee out of the vending machine inside the break room.

"I hardly think so," Blake answered, "But in all honesty: I think we're looking for something specific here," the Faunus added, earning curious looks of both her girlfriend and Weiss.

"How come?" Yang asked, and sipped on her coffee.

"It would be a complete waste of time, otherwise. The Professor wants us to find something the forensic unit here wouldn't bother even looking for."

"And what could that be, Blakey?" Yang asked again.

"I have no idea, Yang," Blake answered, and leaned on Yang, who had taken a seat next to her. Weiss had nothing useful to say during that part of the conversation. Blake was right, though: There had to be something inside the warehouse the Professor wants. And he must have been sure that they were able to find it, even though there was a whole forensic unit investigating the scene. After thinking about this for a few moments, she had something useful to add to the conversation.

"If that is the case," Weiss stated, "we will have to look for… The thing in unusual places."

"On top of the racks?" Blake asked.

"Yes, on top of the racks, for example."

"Oh, really? Climbing?" Yang complained once more about the one thing she was not really good at.

"That's strange, for someone, who likes to be on top…" Blake teased the blonde, and Weiss could feel her face getting warm, while Yang almost choked on her drink. _No time for that, lovebirds, we've got a job to do…_ Weiss thought, but could not resist the urge to tease Yang with her inability to climb. "I do believe there will be plenty of places for you to investigate, Yang, that don't involve climbing."

"Well, in that case: Blake goes up!" Yang exclaimed hastily.

"Excuse me?" Blake asked in acted protest, as the two loving partners started an argument about literally nothing, but were having fun while doing so. Brawler and Faunus ignored their fill-in leader completely, as the heiress tried to calm them down again.

About one and a half hour later, the forensic unit of the police had finished their investigation, and left the warehouse to the Huntresses in training, who now started to look for something, they even did not know the shape, color, or size of. However, they started to look for the thing on top of the racks. Blake did so, to be precise, since she could get up there easily, and without risking any damage to anyone or anything inside the warehouse.

They still had to find any sort of evidence, yet, when Blake seemed to notice something. She tensed up visibly, and before Weiss could even start to ask, what the matter was, the Faunus fled the top of the racks, and whispered: "Hide!"

"Fr-hmmm~" Yang tried to ask, but was silenced by Blake's hand on her mouth. "We've got company…" the Faunus added, still whispering. Weiss pointed at the break room, and the team used the filled racks as cover to get there.

"Oi! Be quick aboot yer bisniss down ther," a scratchy voice, female though, spoke up from above, where the windows were.

"Yeah, yeah…" a man answered, as he and another person were climbing down the racks, by the sounds of it. The other one sniffed from time to time, as if he was sick. Weiss, Yang, and Blake were hiding behind the vending machine, one of the benches inside the break room, and right behind the open door, using it as cover, as they listened into the ongoing conversation.

"Do you smell anything?" the man asked, which was answered by the sniffing one.

"Bunch of humans, remains of the forensics, I think. A tone of Faunus, aaaaaand Dust, Dust, and Dust, honey," the same voice answered, but in an almost happily excited tone, rather than the serious one, who asked. Either that or the man was talking to himself, since the voices differed hardly.

"You shouldn't have called me that, while he was around, darling," the other one laughed up, and earned a growl as an answer. "Anyway, let's find it and be gone, before-""Ouh, shiny!" At least it was now clear that two different male individuals were involved in this.

Weiss tensed up, while literally cowering behind the vending machine, in order to stay out of sight, since the door was open. The Dust smell inside the warehouse seemed to conceal the presence of team RWBY for the time being, but it would only be a matter of time, before the intruders would look for 'it' inside the break room. While the happy man was singing about some secret tunnel of some sort, the heiress could hear him moving away from their position. _What are you doing? _The complaints of 'honey' – the other, more serious man – gave away his position from time to time. He was moving relatively close to the break room, sometimes coming closer, sometimes moving away._ What do you want?_ What Weiss did not know, however, were the whereabouts of the woman on the roof. There were no sounds of her entering the building, or any yells in her accent, which would give away her position. _Where are you?_ The longer the heiress tried and failed to find at least one of the intruders, the more tension built inside Weiss' body.

Yang dared to rise behind the bench, carefully peeking out of the break room window next to her. It looked like she was trying to get a view of the men, or the woman maybe. She did not dare too much, though; she could give away her team's hiding spot. And a fight inside a warehouse full of Dust could result in disaster.

Blake on the other hand stayed behind the door, and looked focused. The Faunus had taken off her bow, and her ears were twitching and turning, as far as Weiss could see. It seemed she tried to hear them, as Weiss did, in order to locate them. The heiress was thinking of a way to get some control of the situation, when suddenly a sharp whistle came from somewhere, Weiss could not make out. _Is she still up there? Did she see us?_ Weiss was literally looking at one of the windows up top, staring at it in surprise. Why did she not think about the non-existent ceiling of the break room? The woman must have seen them.

Silence befell the warehouse. None of the Huntresses in training dared to move out of hiding for the better half an hour. Then, Blake slowly closed the door of the break room, as silently as possible, and finally sighed out in relief, after the door shut.

"What are you doing?" Weiss whispered, still cowering behind the vending machine. "What if they're still here?"

"They're not…" Blake answered quietly, which Yang took as an opportunity to stand up again.

"Eh…" Weiss started, after she had come out of her hiding spot as well. While Blake put her bow back on her head, so that it covered her second pair of ears, as usual, the heiress realized why her Faunus friend was so sure about her statement.

"Well… That was a thing…" Yang said, approached Blake, and put her right arm around the black haired girl's shoulders.

"Intense, I would say…" Blake added, but looked at the heiress in concern. "Weiss, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Let's get back to the job, before they decide to come back," the heiress ordered, her voice was shaky, though. "Did any of you get a look on them?"

"Nope, sorry. Couldn't see anything," Yang answered, as the team left the warehouse.

"Just a silhouette, sorry. I came down, as soon as I realized they were coming in," Blake explained, as the team left the break room, and continued their search. _That's how their name came to be, I suppose. They're just like ghosts._ Weiss thought while looking around the facility one last time. Maybe she missed something. Maybe the Emerald Ghosts were watching. "Guys, I found something over here!" Yang yelled all of a sudden. Weiss and Blake joined their team mate near a fire exit in the back area of the warehouse, where the brawler seemed to have stumbled over a black piece of wool. After closer inspection by the trio, the item turned out to be a mask with a stylized skull painted on its front side.

"Is it one of their masks?" Weiss asked, and realized how unnecessary that question was.

"Certainly looks like the guy in the news described them," Blake acknowledged the heiress' assumption, and Yang just nodded. "Should we take it with us?"

"Where did you find it, Yang?" Weiss asked the brawler, who pointed at the closest rack.

"It was under that thing, looked like woolen hat at first, but…" Yang explained, and shrugged afterwards.

"Okay… So, Blake, why should we take it with us? This is clear evidence, why would the police even… Miss this…" While Weiss was speaking, she realized what may have happened in the warehouse. "You think those three placed it here, don't you?" Weiss inquired. Blake nodded in response.

"Yes, and I also think they want us to deliver a message with this mask."

"Okay, let's get back to Beacon. The Professor would want to know what happened here," Weiss commanded, and called the Academy for a pickup. While the three girls were leaving the storage facility, the heiress could not stop thinking about what the strangers seemed to have done, who they were, and why it was so important, that they broke into a warehouse in the middle of the day. Yang kept the mask in one of her pouches, as they left for their pickup. Weiss did not even bother looking around the outside area, as she had planned. She just wanted to get away.

**The next chapter: Messengers**


	9. 09 - Messengers

Professor Ozpin's office had been quiet for what felt like hours. As team RWBY had entered the room, Yang went straight to the Professor's desk, and put the mask on it. Not even a single word was spoken since then, about ten minutes ago. Weiss could see everyone tense up as the time passed, and she felt it in herself. Yang had clenched her fists, Blake gritted her teeth, the heiress combined these things, and Professor Ozpin just stared at the mask. Weiss moved closer to the desk, and looked at the mask herself. It was made of simple, black wool, and adorned with a stylized skull on the front side, just as the security guard had described it in the news. Assuming, the Emerald Ghosts had team RWBY deliver a message by giving them this mask, only the professor seemed to get it. But he would not talk about what was on his mind, until asked, so Weiss decided to finally break the silence.

"Professor, do you understand-"

"I understand that the Emerald Ghosts want to deliver a message, Miss Schnee," Ozpin interrupted the heiress, which earned him curious looks by her and her team mates, "but I don't understand the message itself, because it doesn't seem to be addressed to me." He leaned back in his chair, and turned the mask around, so that Weiss and the others could see, what he saw: The stylized skull also depicted something like a round building, a castle even, considering the teeth of the skull as battlements of said castle; with a lot of imagination. However, neither the teeth, nor the battlements, were symmetrical to each other, which caught Blake's immediate attention, as far as Weiss could tell. Yang, on the other hand, looked at the woolen accessory in obvious confusion.

"Excuse me?" she asked, as she took a look at the mask.

"Yes, Miss Xiao Long?" the headmaster replied, politely as always.

"If it isn't for you, for whom is it?" _Obvious question, but fair enough. I wonder myself._

"I assume someone, who knows them, Miss Xiao Long," Professor Ozpin answered, "Tell me; how did you find the mask, my dear?"

And Yang started to tell Professor Ozpin about what happened in the warehouse. She told him that the forensic unit of the police was still at work when team RWBY arrived, that they started their search of the warehouse after the professionals had finished their job, and that Blake noticed people, who entered the building via the windows at the rooftop.

"There were at least three, one of them a woman. She said… Well, let me see if I can get this right…" Yang explained, and took a short breather. "'Oi, be dunn wit ya bus nezz dawn their' or something along those lines – seriously, who talks like that?"

"Diana Woods," Professor Ozpin answered coldly. Another moment of silence befell the office, before the headmaster sighed. "So the Emerald Ghosts are definitely the remnants of EMRD-squad, led by Erydias Grey."

"But is the message for her?" Blake asked. "Oh, I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't mean to interrupt you."

"No need to apologize, Miss Belladonna. In fact, this question needs to be answered next, if we wish to solve the mystery at hand," the headmaster explained, pointing at the mask on his desk, "Maybe she can decipher the meaning behind this pictograph." Professor Ozpin leaned forward again, placing his elbows on his desk.

"So, we're supposed to take the mask to her?" Yang asked again. Weiss already agreed on that suggestive question, since they were already acquaintances, but was cut off by the professor again.

"Not directly. I want you to bring her here. But not today, since it is already getting late, and you had an eventful day already. So-"

His words were interrupted by Professor Goodwitch, who entered the office with a mixture of confusion and urgency expressed by her face. "I'm sorry, Sir, but I got all information on the Emerald Ghosts, I could find," she explained the interruption. It was not much, though. She put a single file on the headmaster's desk.

"Ah, yes, thank you, Glynda," he said, and faced team RWBY, "Maybe you can use this to help you convince our forlorn daughter to return home. You can go now, prepare for your next mission. The last one was a success, of course. Well done."

* * *

><p>Back in their room, Yang screamed joyfully at the sight of Ruby, sitting on Blake's bed. Her right leg was still bandaged, and the little rose needed two crutches to be able to move around the Academy on her own. She was not allowed to put any weight on her injured leg. While looking at her partner, Weiss spine started to feel cold again, fear crawling up to her neck, which made her shiver. There was Ruby, totally oblivious that Yang still did not know about how her injury came to be, and it was only a matter of minutes, until that question came up.<p>

"Nothing can keep you in one place, eh Ruby?" Yang asked, while holding her sister in one of her infamous bear hugs, lifting the little one off the ground.

"Hey, stop it! I'm not supposed to run around, Yang. Put me down!" the leader of team RWBY demanded, more or less comprehensible. And Yang put her down immediately.

"Sorry, sis. I'm just so excited! I didn't even tell you I'm in a relationship!" Yang simply pulled Blake to her side, and before anyone else in the room could react in any kind of way, the couple exchanged a passionate and somewhat wild kiss, turning Ruby's head as red as the hood she put on after looking at them for about ten seconds.

"Guys," she laughed embarrassed, "Take a room or something."

"You don't mind that?" Weiss asked her partner, and moved between the lovebirds and Ruby in order to obscure the view on the scene for her.

"Why should I?" Ruby answered.

"Because… Oh, I was just surprised, that's all…" Weiss answered, and laughed both nervously and embarrassed. Now that the heiress was literally in the center of attention, the tale of Ruby's bandages demanded to be told. The truth behind Weiss' betrayal demanded to be brought to light. She was about to start, when her fear took control over her mind, and the heiress stuttered and mumbled to herself instead of actually speaking.

"Weiss, are you alright?" Blake asked, and put her left hand on the heiress' right shoulder, which startled the latter. "I don't think so," the Faunus answered her own question, gently pushed Weiss towards her desk, and let sit down on her chair. The heiress' whole face was tingling, she could barely hear anything besides her own breathing, her heart was pounding, and she knew that she was about to panic in front of her team mates.

"I…" the heiress began to explain, "I… I did… This…" she stuttered, pointed at Ruby's bandaged leg, and looked with eyes wide open at an angry face staring back at her. Of course Yang would react in such a way, since she was so protective of her sister. A black and white blur intervened, however, before the fiery anger of Yang could build up completely – Weiss needed to take a second look to recognize Blake.

"You did- You better have a good explanation for that, or else even Blake won't be able to stop me!" Yang snarled at Weiss, who slowly became more and more awake again.

"I… I didn't notice a Beowolf that had snuck up behind me. Ruby intercepted it, while I attacked one in front of me, and I… Hit her instead. Then a Deathstalker came out of the ground, and I grabbed Ruby, and ran… Yang, please, by no means did I mean to do this, I swear." Now back to full awareness, Weiss realized that she never even mentioned the Death Stalker; neither the Headmaster nor team JNPR knew about the creature lurking in the forest, Miss Grey was living in. And to make things worse, Yang noticed that as well.

The brawler jumped off her bed, she had taken a seat on, and started walking around in the room, like a lion inside its cage. Weiss could clearly see the rage boiling inside Yang, who let the flames of her semblance dance around her hair to let off at least some of it, she assumed. Blake walked up to her, and tried to calm Yang down.

"Yang, please listen to me. I-" the Faunus started, but was interrupted by a furious blonde brawler.

"Jaune and the others don't know that they're up against a Stalker, we didn't know there is one in the area, either, and Weiss didn't have the guts to tell us at least that, because Miss Perfect here had to cover up a totally normal combat accident! THAT'S WHAT'S GETTING ME!" Yang screamed, kicked open the door, and left the room with a trail of fire behind herself. While Blake just stared at the door in disbelief, Weiss got a lump in her throat she never had before, standing in the middle of the room apathetically. How could she have forgotten that? She must have written it down in the report for the Professor, who then instructed Jaune and the others properly. But Weiss was not sure about that, however, since the report was created late at night and as fast as possible by her, while Yang and Blake were already sleeping. Did she note the Death Stalker, or not?

While Weiss tried to figure that out, Ruby nudged her left shoulder. The heiress diverted her attention towards her young partner, who held a Scroll right in front of Weiss' face. _Of course! S_he grabbed the device, and noticed that Ruby already warned Jaune about the Death Stalker via a simple text message: -=Update: Death Stalker in the Area. Watch yourselves.=- His answer, simply being the letter 'k', had followed shortly after Ruby's Message. "I'm sorry, Ruby, I… I didn't…" Weiss started to stutter and mumble again, while Ruby used one of her crutches to pull Weiss' chair towards her own, and sat down on the latter. "Sit down…" Ruby almost whispered, and Weiss obeyed the order immediately. Blake had left the room, probably to find Yang. _Ah, yes, Weiss… You have initiated the first crisis of a newly formed relationship, well done…_

"Well," Ruby said after a moment of silence, "at least now it's out of the way, hm?" That said, the little rose looked at the heiress, and smiled.

"Yeah… At least…" Weiss repeated silently. "Now they hate me…" she sighed afterwards.

"Why do you think that?" Ruby asked in return, took Weiss' hand, and placed it on her right thigh. "She is not mad at you, because of this," the young team leader explained, using the gesture to underline her statement, "You didn't listen to her."

"I could… Barely hear anything…" Weiss tried to explain herself, but ended up in a lack of words to describe what had been going on in her head; What IS going on in her head. A chaotic mixture of emotions, ranging from confusion to anger, hatred even, against herself; all on the foundation of fear.

"You looked really terrified, Weiss," Ruby confirmed Weiss' suspicion.

"But of what?" Weiss asked silently, looking at the ground while doing so.

"I'd hoped, you'd tell me," Ruby replied, and started to caress the back of Weiss' hand with her thumb. Somehow this gesture calmed down the heiress a bit, and she looked at her partner, still confused. But Ruby stayed silent. In these minutes, which felt like hours to Weiss, the heiress did not dare move the hand away from Ruby's thigh. The caressing was too comforting, the warm smile on Ruby's face too fascinating, the warmth on Weiss' own face too strange to be ignored. The confusion, the cold crawling on her spine, and the feeling of guilt were wiped away completely, and Weiss felt at ease for the first time since the accident.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, disturbing the peace, the heiress had found in this moment, "Can I sleep in your bed until my leg is okay again?"

"W-wha- Yes, of course," the heiress answered, "which means, I would have to sleep in yours, right?"

"Well… You could use Blake's bed, when she's with Yang, or the other way round, Yang's bed, when she's with Blake…" Ruby suggested. Weiss' thoughts revolved around the couple being together in one bed, and went into an inappropriate direction almost instantly, which made her head heat up even more.

"Why is your face turning red?" Ruby asked. _Are you really that innocent, Ruby?_

"Ehm… I tried to imagine, how that would look like…" Weiss replied, and tried to wipe the blush off her cheeks. Ruby seemed to think about it for a short moment, and grinned afterwards.

"Awww… That would look adorable…" Weiss could not help it, but admire Ruby for an unknown reason, while her young leader rose, and crutched over to the beds of Blake and Yang._ Yes, you are._

Weiss stood up, went to her end table, where her nightgown used to be stored during the days, and moved into the bathroom.

"You're going to bed, already?" Ruby asked in complaint.

"Yes…" Weiss answered. "I'm tired. Let me deal with Yang tomorrow, okay?"

"Well… I can't guarantee she won't wake you up."

"It's ok…" Weiss whispered, almost incomprehensible for Ruby. "However, now your sister knows that I fear her."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Weiss," Ruby then replied…

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Awakening<strong>


	10. 10 - Awakening

~Notice: POV changed to Erydias Grey, present~

I had a bad feeling in my stomach the whole afternoon, and every time I walked past the mirror, it got worse. I have been on the verge of armoring up twice this day, and third time's the charm, so there I was, all geared up and ready for combat, walking through the forest that had been my home for the past seven years. I had unfolded my shield when leaving the house, and caught myself admiring the 'artwork' on the front side of it; the sword pointing downwards with two stylized fists flanking it, just as the depiction on the armor's chest piece.

It did not take long for me to find the place of the engagement; Battles tend to be loud after all. As I approached the site, it was already getting dark, so the Grimm were becoming less visible as time passed. By the looks of it, these two teams had done a decent job of decimating the creatures, when the Grimm suddenly started running; not in fear, but as part of a flanking maneuver by two other Beowolf packs. One of them even snuck up behind me, but it was too loud in its approach for a successful ambush, which resulted in its death by my blade. "Back in business, I'd say…" I commented myself, and started moving towards the Battle.

There was a time I cursed my Semblance for attracting Grimm in certain vicinity, but after my graduation from Beacon Academy I started to see its practical uses. As soon as I focused on it, Beowolves started to turn around and charge me, instead of joining the onslaught of the other Huntsmen, easing their part of the battle. They used to call it 'pulling aggro', and I had not figured out, what they meant by that. _Let's see, if I can still do this…_

I cut off the first Beowolf's right paw, and stabbed its head directly after that, taking the creature out in the process. The next two Grimm already tried to pincer attack me from the sides, which forced me to rush forward. One of them clawed into my sword, trying to disarm me, but I managed to guide it into the other one, using their momentum against them. A slice through their throats later, they were eliminated, and I turned around just in time to block a claw slash to my chest with my shield. The forced rush forward, however, attracted even more Beowolves – more than I could handle by myself.

A claw slashing towards my face. I barely dodged it. The counter attack opened my defense for another Grimm. I turned around, slammed it with my shield. Still standing. Stab to the neck with my sword. Missed. Another two trying to overwhelm me. Managed to push them aside, on my knees. Next attacker jumped into my blade. But I fell on my back. One Beowolf tried to stomp my head in, but was hit by bullets, and fell next to me. Others were driven away by explosives. That bought me the time to get back up on my feet. Allies were surrounding me, giving me time to recover. The onslaught continued. We pushed the Grimm back, wave by wave. Then the battle subsided, the Grimm retreated.

As the stress left my body, I took a look at the Huntsmen, two young Huntsmen, and two young Huntresses in fact, who probably had saved my life. Aura and armor would have prevented most of the damage, but without assistance it would have been very difficult to turn that situation around again.

The first one I saw was a young man, wearing a chest piece and shoulder protection. His jeans were torn at the left thigh, and he was bleeding. The blonde boy was armed with a simple set of sword and shield, and I could tell by his stance that he had not used it very often. He looked at me in disbelief, and I had the feeling, he knew who I am, just like Ruby Rose did.

The other guy was black haired, wore green attire, which could often be found in the kingdom of Mistral, and used two pistols with bayonet like blades attached to them. Probably it was he, who shot the Beowolf trying to crush my head. He was firm with his weapons, as far as I could see via his body language, as was the girl in a white top and a pink skirt next to him. _Seriously? A grenade launcher?_ I thought to myself as I looked at the weapon. She seemed to be excited the wrong way, considering they just fought off a merged pack of Beowolves. But maybe it was just my perception, so I did not comment on that.

Lastly a young Spartan Lady caught my attention. Her equipment was a small round shield, and a Foldable Frame spear – it just happened to change into a sword – while she was clad in a gold and red color scheme, legs armored, chest covered in a leather armor, which reminded me of a corset.

"Thanks for the assistance," I said.

"We have to thank you, Ma'am," the blonde boy answered. "If it weren't for you, we could've been in real trouble back here."

"Mhm…"

"We should report to the other team, Jaune," the Spartan suggested, which reminded me of my courtesy, or the lack of it. And it was good to hear that Ozpin did send more than one fresh team to deal with the Beowolves.

"Erydias Grey," I introduced myself, earning surprised and curious looks by three of the teenage Hunters.

"Nora!" the girl in white-pink shouted in the middle of her sentence, and returned to babbling to the young man in green, who introduced himself as Lie Ren, after adding her last name, Valkyrie, to her introduction.

Jaune suddenly saluted me. "Jaune Arc, Ma'am. It's an honor to meet you in person." _So you DO know who I am._

"Pyrrha Nikos," the last member of this team finished their introduction. We silently agreed to leave pleasantries as they were for the time being.

"Where is this other team?" I asked out of curiosity.

"They went up north, Ma'am," Jaune explained to me, "We were told that there is a Death Stalker in the area, and they wanted to look for traces of the creature."

Now that was no surprise to me. I knew the Stalker, but I did not know that he was that close to my house. While Jaune, who appeared to be the leading part of this team, JNPR, as Nora explained to me, contacted the other Huntsmen via his scroll, I searched the vicinity for any sign of a Stalker myself, as did Ren and Pyrrha. We did not find any, though.

"Damn… No response…" Jaune muttered to himself, but loud enough to be heard. "Alright, guys. We need to move."

"…I don't like this…" Ren said quietly. I assumed he had a bad feeling, a hunch of what they could find, like I did.

"Would you accompany us?" the leader of this team of aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses asked me, and surprisingly enough, I agreed. While we headed to the last known location of the other team, I tried to remember how it was to be a subordinate. Funny thing, being more experienced than the leadership, but still following their orders… The night made the whole ordeal even more difficult than it already was, given the terrain. We entered a part of the forest, which was littered with cracks in the ground, potentially dangerous ones at that. It took Jaune about fifty seconds to start using my knowledge of the area to move around more safely.

* * *

><p>It was dark already, when we arrived at one of the many clearings in that particular area.<p>

"A good spot for an ambush…" Jaune whispered, and I could not agree more. To my knowledge, there were only three ways to enter the clearing without crossing one of the cracks. According to his hint, the team fanned out, and secured the other two entrances, while I remained at the one we came from.

"Ren, Flashlight…" Jaune ordered, and the latter obeyed. What they found was sadly, what had been expected: Four dead bodies, former Huntsmen maimed by Beowolves. And there was still no sign of the Stalker.

Those four reacted to their findings in different ways. While Pyrrha seemed to have no problem with them at all, Ren was too busy calming down Nora. She was on the verge of screaming in Terror, I could see in her flashlight lit face. Luckily, she did not. Jaune took the sight fearful as well, but not as traumatized as his subordinate Nora. _Get their tags, and be done with it… There's nothing you can do…_ I thought to myself, and remembered the moment I said this out loud; a similar situation to this one. And like back then, the howling of Beowolves dragged me back to the present.

In the darkness I could understand Weiss' difficulties seeing the Creatures of Grimm. We were not fast enough, to get out of the clearing, and the pack had surrounded us, as far as I could hear.

"Flares!" Jaune and I commanded synchronously, as I closed in on the team.

"Sorry, old habits…" I apologized, while the flares granted us the light we needed to witness, what we were up against: The remnants of the merged pack of Beowolves, including the Alpha. It was about twice the size of a common Beowolf, bone plates all over its body, especially the forelegs and the front side of the creature.

"The bodies were bait…" Pyrrha whispered; her voice somewhat fearful, but still steady. Ren and Nora stayed silent. She had calmed down enough to fight properly – that was, what I had hoped, however. Jaune on the other hand started mumbling to himself, and I was afraid he would lose his focus. But to my surprise, he looked up again, and ordered his team to try and engage the Alpha directly, while he would cover their backs, with my assistance. What the boy obviously lacked in combat experience, he made up for via tactical expertise. Our foes simply did not anticipate such a daring move. And it was successful. The others were not able to kill the Alpha – it retreated behind its pack – but the maneuver got us out of their circle.

Shots were fired, grenades were launched, and many Creatures of Grimm perished under the youngsters' fire. However, the beasts flanked us several times, until they eventually separated Pyrrha and me from the rest of the team. The Spartan got knocked off her feet. I was too far away, to assist immediately. One Beowolf stomped onto her right knee, as if it was kicking out a fire. Of course, she started screaming in pain. While I did my best to keep the pack away from her, Nora blew up several Grimm, creating an opening. I grabbed Pyrrha, pulled her up, and literally threw her into Jaune's arms. He caught her, and nodded at me. The last time I received a gesture like that, I was bidden to take over. So I did it this time.

"Alright," I shouted to get their attention, "westwards, to a cave! We need a choke point! Nora front, I'll cover the rear, Ren secures Pyrrha and Jaune! Move!" Luckily they took the sudden change of command well enough to immediately obey the given orders. They ran directly to the cave I had been thinking about. There, the number of Beowolves would turn into a disadvantage. Only one of them could attack us via the cave entrance at a time.

"Distress call, Ren!" Jaune ordered in my stead, as we arrived at the location of our last stand. It seemed that I was meant to take over only partially, and I was fine with that. The Alpha never engaged us on the way to the cave. But it was always watching, always in line of sight. It snarled and growled at us. It took me the whole way to the cave to realize, it was directing the pack, commanding it.

_We need to stop pulling out the petals… _I thought to myself, as we prepared our defenses. "Cut off the head…" I thought aloud, and Ren, who stood next to me, nodded in agreement.

"But how?" he asked.

"First things first, here they come," I answered, and the first Beowolf smashed itself into me, trying to get me out of the way. I pushed it back, and Ren shot the beast. The next ones were shot by Pyrrha. She was sitting a bit back in the cave, holding a musket like rifle. Foldable Frame, obviously, but three active forms were new to me. Jaune decided that it would be more efficient to shoot the Creatures of Grimm, before they reached the cave entrance. I was supposed to block it, whenever one of them got to close. So I folded my shield, and used its second form, a double barreled assault rifle, mounted to my forearm. Shooting most of the Grimm approaching, I still had to unfold the shield from time to time, in order to stop a Beowolf from entering the cave.

Eventually, the opportunity we were waiting for presented itself. I hit the Alpha, standing behind its pack, with a stray bullet. While it could not penetrate its bone armor plates, the hit seemed to have surprised it enough for Jaune to seize the opportunity. "Nora, fire!" he shouted, and one of her grenades flew shortly after. It hit the Alpha Beowolf, making the beast howl in agony. That howl confused the whole pack enough for us to risk a counter attack.

But as soon as we started said counter attack, the ground started to rumble underneath our feet. The youngsters barely had any time to react, as the Deathstalker broke through the ground; right in front of the cave. It blocked off my view of the battlefield, where Jaune, Ren and Nora were continuing the attack on the Alpha Beowolf. Separated from the team, I did not even realize Pyrrha, who still was in the cave, and literally defenseless against the titanic creature. I was too busy keeping it off the backs of the other aspiring Huntress and the two equally aspiring Huntsmen.

_So this is it… The last stand…_ I thought to myself, and immediately went for the many eyes of the Deathstalker. I managed to stab one, causing a shriek of agony by the creature. I focused on the Deathstalker's front, because my biggest concerns in that situation were its mandibles and the pincers. It could easily put me between these body parts, were it not for the rocks, which limited the Stalker's maneuverability in that regard – I did not want to leave the cave entrance, since it was my advantage. But it was intelligent enough to go for the easier prey instead of me, leaving me no choice but to give up my advantage.

As soon as I engaged the creature again, I simply stopped thinking. I acted on my instincts, and activated my Grimm attracting Semblance again. I was lucky that only the Stalker reacted to it at that time. It tried to grab me with its left pincer. I parried it with my shield, guiding myself under the huge pincer. But instead of leaving the area between pincers and mandibles, I leapt towards the mouth of the Deathstalker. My only focus was keeping the creature occupied until the others could finish it. I deemed the direct confrontation the only suitable way of achieving that goal. Weapon, Shield and Bone clashed numerous times, while it tried to get a hold of me.

I evaded the pincers by ducking under them.

I somewhat parried the mandibles by thrusting my sword against them.

I avoided getting pushed into the mandibles by stabbing to the eyes of the Deathstalker, forcing it to move away from me.

I barely blocked one of its pincers, and was pushed back in the process.

During that dance of death with one of the most dangerous Creatures of Grimm I knew, I did not notice the young Huntress on top of it. Only after she had smashed her hammer into the creature's back about three times, I realized that I was not fighting the Deathstalker on my own any more. As the youngsters engaged it, they created an opportunity for me to catch my breath. As my adrenaline level dropped, I started feeling the pain. The arthrosis in my right hip joint started to take over my perception. My arms became numb, I got dizzy, and I my vision got blurry in mere seconds. I had overstrained myself, and was paying the price. I could, however, hear Jaune – fragments of the words he spoke. I took a few blinks to recognize Ren, who had his hands placed on my upper arms. He was shaking me, and talking to me. But I could barely hear his voice – it was dampened by the peeping sound in my ears. Flashing lights in the darkness were almost all I could see – very bright and fast moving. Shadows of people. Black smoke. I was not sure, what was going on around me at that moment.

But I was certain at this point, that the Deathstalker was no longer a threat to the young Huntsmen and Huntresses, who were more than capable of taking care of the rest. I fell on my knees, and just closed my eyes. That day was over for me.

**The next chapter: The White Knight returns**

**Author's note: This chapter has been altered. The previously uploaded version of it has been uploaded by mistake (I used the wrong file, my bad).**

**On another note: I do ask for feedback of you, dear readers, in order to improve the story and/or writing. Please criticize in a constructive way.**


	11. 11 - The white Knight returns

~Notice: POV changed to Weiss Schnee, present~

Weiss awoke the next morning – much later, than she usually did. _Overslept!_ She thought right before falling about one and a half meters, when rushing out of bed. She hit the ground left arm first, which started to hurt quite a bit immediately. When turning onto her back, the heiress looked up to Yang, who was fully geared up, and kneeled down to her.

"Did we forget something, Princess?" the blonde jested, as she usually did. There were no signs of aggression or hostility, as Weiss had anticipated, feared even. However, Weiss actually DID forget that Ruby slept in the lower of the two improvised bunk beds, because of her injury. After the incident, it was the least the heiress could do.

"Yes," Weiss simply answered, and got up. Yang put her left arm around Weiss shoulders, which made the heiress freeze in place.

"You know, Blake and I had a long and heated discussion about all this yesterday…" Yang started explaining. Of course Weiss knew it has been her cowardice that had lead to that dispute in their relationship. She was responsible. And Yang's partner was nowhere to be seen, as well as Ruby. "And we agreed that we – meaning you and me – need to talk this through."

The blonde brawled stayed silent for a brief moment, before Weiss started talking in a low voice: "I… I already explained… H-how it happened… What else should I say, but I-I'm sorry…"

"You could start by looking me in the eye, Weiss…" Yang answered calmly. Weiss continued looking at her own feet for a few moments, but eventually looked up to Yang, who looked at Weiss both concerned and relaxing. The brawler then spoke up again in a calm, quiet voice: "You're afraid…" the blonde realized, looking confused.

"Yes…" Weiss answered almost incomprehensibly.

"Why?"

"I don't know…"

"Of what?"

"I don't know, either…"

"Strange…"

"I'm sorry…"

"I know."

"Can I make this up to you guys?"

"Of course."

"How?"

"Conquer the fear."

* * *

><p>After having said that, Yang left Weiss to herself, her thoughts, and her hurting left arm. Weiss prepared for the mission ahead, but the pain did not get better in any way. Regardless of the obviously hurt arm, the heiress joined her team at the Bullhead, which would take them to forest to the north-east once more. Yang was leaning against the aircraft, Blake was leaning against Yang's left shoulder, and Ruby supported herself with the crutches, which she had been using the day before.<p>

"Hey, Weiss!" the little rose greeted her partner, cheerful, as she always was, but the look on her face became a mixture of curiousness and worry in mere seconds. "What's wrong with your arm?" she asked. Weiss was wondering at first, before she noticed that she was keeping the left arm in front of her, and even held it with the right hand. It was only normal to notice, something was off with this behavior.

"N- I fell…" Weiss answered, without looking at her team mates at first, "out of the bed… The arm hurts since that," she finished her explanation, while not looking at Ruby, but at Yang, who just nodded in agreement.

"Then you should better go to the infirmary, and let them check the arm…" Ruby was serious, and Weiss was about to obey her order, when another Bullhead landed on the neighboring landing pad. This in itself was nothing out of the ordinary, but the medical personnel, who showed up during the landing maneuver; that was something out of the ordinary. Just out of curiosity the whole team went closer to the landing pad, as Jaune literally fell out of the aircraft – exhausted, by the looks of his face – and threw up right in front of his own feet. While Weiss could feel a subtle smirk on her lips, Yang almost laughed out aloud. But when Pyrrha was carried out of the vehicle, Yang almost choked on her laughter, while the smirk on Weiss' face gave way to a sincerely worried expression. Ren and Nora were even more exhausted, than Jaune appeared to be, but were at least unharmed.

_This merged pack is dangerous,_ Weiss thought to herself, and gasped in disbelief, as the infirmary's staff carried none other than Erydias Grey herself out of the bullhead. While Jaune tried to help Pyrrha to get onto a handbarrow – Yang assisted the leader of team JNPR with that – and Ren simply talked to Blake and Ruby – probably explaining the situation – Weiss herself barely managed to get out of the way in time. _What happened?_

The question lingered in Weiss' head, as she took a very close look at the seasoned Huntress. She appeared to be unconscious, but no injury could be seen anywhere on her body, neither any damage on the armor, besides a few scratches and a little dent in the right shoulder plate. Pyrrha and Ms. Grey were taken to the infirmary swiftly, and Weiss did not ask anyone about what happened, yet. She was not even listening to any word, which was spoken around her, until Yang shouted loudly.

"Remnant to Weiss! Anyone home?!"

"Huh! Yes, yes, I'm here, Yang. What is it?" Startled as she was, Weiss' voice was shaking during her short answer. She was afraid again, but since she was not involved in anything that happened to Jaune and his team, the heiress struggled to find an answer as to how that fear came to be at that time.

"Let's go," the brawler said.

"Where?"

"To the infirmary. Your arm still hurts, right?"

As if on command, said arm just started to hurt again, dragging Weiss out of her thoughts and back to reality.

"I'll go with Weiss," Ruby then said, "Yang, you and Blake go to Professor Ozpin, and tell him that Ms. Grey just reached the Academy."

The couple simply nodded, and went to the headmaster's office in order to carry out the given order. Ruby and Weiss surely did take their time to reach the infirmary themselves. The heiress considered helping her partner numerous times, but every time she offered her help, Ruby rejected it. Clearly the little rose wanted to show that she could manage things by herself, even with her injured leg. To finally change the subject, Weiss asked: "What happened to Pyrrha?"

"Huh?" Ruby took a curious look at Weiss. "You didn't listen?" To that the heiress shook her head.

"Okay… Ren told me that one of the Beowolves stomped on the knee, and that the kneecap seemed to have withstood the impact, her crucial ligament as well. Bones themselves are broken, he said. Her Aura absorbed most of the damage." Ruby answered, and looked at Weiss concerned.

"Just as yours did, when I cut your leg…" the heiress said quietly. "I wonder how it managed to do that."

"She got separated," Ruby continued to retell, what Ren had told her previously. Weiss swallowed heavily, imagining how it must have looked like. "Luckily, Ms. Grey was close enough to prevent anything worse than some broken bones around the knee."

"Wait. She was with them? How?" Weiss asked. The way how the seasoned Huntress acted towards her when they met did not add up to her following the others.

"She came out of nowhere, Ren said," Ruby answered.

"Then only she knows, why, I suppose," Weiss concluded.

"We have your arm to worry about first, I think," Ruby added to the conversation.

The infirmary staff was treating Pyrrha's injured knee, piecing together the damage that had been caused there, while Ms. Grey had been laid on a bed – in order to remove her armor, or afterwards, Weiss could not tell. The Huntress' eyes were closed, her skin pale, and her breathing movements were barely visible. Soon, the heiress was drawn away from the sight, and brought into a separated area for the examination of her arm.

The fall had caused a simple bruise, which the heiress' Aura did not absorb, due to Weiss being distracted or just being inattentive. Now with medication and Aura enhanced healing, the bruise should trouble Weiss only for the remainder of the current day. While they were at the infirmary, Ruby got her bandages changed.

"Meeeh…" Ruby suddenly complained, and Weiss looked at the silhouette of her partner. She just realized that the little rose was there, as they were separated by a simple curtain, and the lights threw Ruby's shadow against it.

"What is it, Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"We're too late for breakfast now…" the little rose explained, making Weiss smirk in the process.

"It's not like we couldn't get something to eat elsewhere, Ruby…" _I don't know why you are so annoying when you do these things._ Weiss thought to herself, while Ruby gestured in excitement behind the curtain.

"…We can?" Ruby asked in confusion. Weiss started to grin to herself.

"Of course we can, du-do that. There's a kiosk right inside the cafeteria, and even if nobody would be there, there are still some vending machines we could use." Weiss explained, and took a deep breath. She was getting angry at Ruby again, for such a nonsensical reason. The heiress sighed quietly at herself, before speaking up again. "I'm sorry, Ruby," she said.

"Well…" Ruby answered, as she began to move around the curtain. Sticking only her head around the fabric, Ruby grinned at Weiss sheepishly, and exclaimed: "Let's find breakfast, then!"

* * *

><p>Without further ado Ruby took Weiss right hand, and pulled her off the bedside the heiress was sitting on. Following a swift and energetic turn on her left heel, Ruby went forward, out of the infirmary, straight towards the cafeteria. On the way the duo met several other students, exchanged some pleasantries with them, and moved along. Weiss saw this as a return to the daily routine she had become used to over the time at Beacon Academy – aside from the injuries she and her team leader had. And since their mission had been cancelled for obvious reasons, the class schedule was the order of the day. Luckily they only missed the first lesson, which was history, one of Weiss' excellences. The rest of the morning would be combat class with Prof. Goodwitch. Because of their injuries, Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrha could not participate.<p>

The first duel was held by Yang and some other student Weiss could not remember the name of. Naturally the blonde brawler stomped the poor guy into the ground – metaphorically - and used every opportunity to boast in front of everyone. The heiress assumed, Yang was trying to impress none other than Blake, and by the looks of her Faunus friend, it actually worked. Weiss let her thoughts go into very intimate speculations for a few seconds, before clearing her throat, while being slightly embarrassed about it. _Hopefully nobody saw anything…_ she thought to herself. After criticizing Yang's boastfulness, praising the prowess of both students, even though the other guy seemed to be way behind the brawler, and glancing at Jaune for a brief moment, Prof. Goodwitch decided that he should fight next, in order to show his progress.

Thus, the following duel featured Jaune and Nora as his sparring partner. Weiss had to admit that his swordplay had improved over the last weeks, and wondered how he managed to make these jumps in performance in such a short period of time. Listening to Pyrrha cheering for Jaune, the heiress got an idea who might have helped "Vomit Boy" with his training. _Comradeship at its finest, I suppose._

Even though Jaune did not win the duel against Nora, his performance was satisfactory to Prof. Goodwitch, let alone his team and his friends. Even Cardin shared a word of praise.

After receiving a call by the headmaster, Prof. Goodwitch delayed the next duel for some reason, looking at her wristwatch from time to time, while the students were supposed to analyze the recorded footage of their respective partner's last duels for errors in stance, areas for improvement and so on, discussing those topics with each other – most likely to keep them busy, while the Professor was waiting.

"…And here, you were – uh, Weiss?" Ruby poked the heiress in her left arm, who cringed in pain because of the impact – even as gentle, as it was. "Oh, oops…" Ruby said as apology.

"Ouch…" was the heiress' answer. "What is it?"

"You weren't listening," Ruby replied, and continued to show Weiss the flaw in her stance during her last fight against Jaune. Her balance point was too far back, and too high as well, which Jaune could have used to throw the heiress off her feet completely. To Weiss' surprise she could see that Jaune actually tried to do just that, and only her better reaction timing saved her that victory.

"Huh…" Weiss said after Ruby was finished, "So, he IS clever enough, he only lacks practical experience… I thought he was just plain bad at fighting."

"Nope, he's not."

"Anyway, we're supposed to talk about me, not him, which is what we did. Now's your turn, Ruby," Weiss exclaimed, picked up her Scroll, and wanted to start the recording, when suddenly the door of the combat class room was opened. Of course many heads were turned to the door, but what was seen standing there surprised everybody in the room, most of all Weiss herself. Erydias Grey, clad in her white armor, and wearing the black fedora on her head, entered the room after closing the door behind herself, and went up to Prof. Goodwitch.

"Ah, Miss Grey. The headmaster told me you were headed this way for an evaluation. This combat class is in its first semester. However, they are very talented fighters, and should be able to provide you with a sparring partner who is up to the task at hand."

Weiss looked to Ruby and she looked back at the heiress. "This. Is. Awesome." Ruby tried to be as quiet as possible, while her excitement was about to get the better of her. The heiress was excited herself, as probably every other student in the room was.

"Damn it, I already had mine!" Yang cursed, while Blake simply shook her head, smiled to herself, and put a hand on her lover's shoulder. There was some unrest in the class, while Prof. Goodwitch prepared the stage for the upcoming duel, ignoring it for the time being. The White Knight, however, looked at the students critically, one by one, arms crossed on front of her chest.

"You there," she eventually said, nodding to Cardin Winchester, "boots off the table. And feet."

Weiss looked at the young Atlesian man, who just did what Ms. Grey told – literally ordered – him to do. He even stood up without a word. After that, she simply flipped, and pointed towards the stage behind her. "Get yourself up there," she ordered while doing so.

Weiss felt uncomfortable again in Erydias' presence. This woman seemed to be able to intimidate people by simply looking at them in a certain way, using body language more than actual words. Afterwards the heiress noticed that the measuring systems were fully prepared for the upcoming duel, showing Cardin's portrait on the right side, and Erydias', with her fedora, on the left side. Both participants were taking their positions as Prof. Goodwitch spoke up.

"Students, I want you to watch this duel very closely. After that, we will analyze the performance of Miss. Grey here, and see how well trained she is." Having said that, the professor turned towards the stage, and addressed the duelists. "Begin!"

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Evaluation<strong>

**So, this has been in the pipeline for a long time, but now I present to you: The next chapter of 'The Outcast'.**

**Again, feel free to criticize, but do so in a constructive matter, please. The updates will come irregularly, as always, since life keeps me busy a lot.**

**I am sorry for the waiting time, and grateful for the patience. **


	12. 12 - Evaluation

A wave of Excitement washed through the training hall, as Erydias Grey unsheathed her Weapon, which turned out to be a weapon set comprised of two items. Weiss looked a bit skeptical at the unfolding shield of Ms. Grey, which reminded her much of Jaune's Crocea Mors. The main difference between his set and hers was the way they were carried by their respective owners. While she carried the shield as a vambrace in its folded state, and thus had a separate sheath for the sword, his shield acted as the sheath when folded. Another difference between the sets was the design of the swords. Crocea Mors on the one hand had a relatively short blade, and almost no guard. On the other hand, the blade of Ms. Grey's weapon seemed to be a bit too long to be wielded with one hand, and provided a guard long enough do parry incoming attacks with relative ease. _So she's equipped to fight Grimm, Humans and Faunus alike. _Weiss thought to herself. She took a look at some of her classmates, mainly Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha – the ones closest to herself. All three of them, even Pyrrha, seemed to be impressed by the symbols on the shield; the stylized fists flanking a stylized sword pointing downwards. The heiress herself was not that impressed, because she was familiar with them. But when she took a closer look at them, their style matched the one of the skull mask she and the others had recovered in warehouse #12 of the Schnee Dust Company. _Is this a coincidence?_ Weiss thought, but was immediately dragged into the present when Cardin finally began to assault Ms. Grey.

He was a simplistic fighter, straightforward and working with brute force. Thus, every opponent of Cardin had to evade his onslaught, for his mace dealt a decent amount of damage, even if he did not hit his target properly. However, as he swung the weapon from left to right, Ms. Grey did not even try to dodge the attack. "A hard block?!" one of Weiss' classmates asked aloud, right before Ms. Grey finally moved. She tilted her shield towards herself, and lifted it, when the mace connected. This way, she simply guided it over her head, and created an opening in Cardin's defense, which she almost instantly struck into with a quick stab by her sword. Weiss looked at the display over the duelists, which showed Ms. Grey at 100% and Cardin at 96%. While the class seemed to deem this as weak, considering the experience the Huntress should have had, Weiss just knew there was something off with this, and so did Ruby.

"Maybe she just didn't hit him right…" the little rose whispered.

"No…" Weiss answered, and left it at that, as Cardin attacked once more.

Ms. Grey had not moved an inch away from her initial position, as his mace slammed onto her shield from above. Once. Twice. She did not block the third strike hard, as she did with the previous two, though. Instead, the Huntress guided that blow to her right side, exposing Cardin's back to a counter attack in the process, which followed – again – almost instantaneously. Her strike was a simple swing upwards, while the hand stayed in its natural position, before bringing her shield back up again, while Cardin was tumbling away from her a couple of steps. Weiss used this brief pause to take a look at the display above.

**[Grey 98% - 90% Winchester]**

Cardin took a brief moment to adjust his position again, while Ms. Grey was already awaiting the young Atlesian's next move. Impressed by the display of skill, patience and discipline so far, the class went silent. Weiss just stared at the White Knight, while Cardin's huffs and clashing of his weapon with the shield of the seasoned Huntress were the only sounds disrupting that silence. Again he tried to overpower his opponent by relentlessly smashing his mace against Ms. Grey's defense. Weiss tensed up, as she seemed to be forced down to her knees. But just as he seemed to have finally broken through, she suddenly dodged his last attack by sidestepping to the left. Ms. Grey was back on her feet again, Cardin seemed to be angered by the maneuver, and attacked again. The feat of finesse was followed by a feat of strength, as the Huntress went on her knees again, and brought the shield in front of her. It was placed so low, though, that Cardin could simply strike over it. Ruby gasped silently, as the class watched his charge against the kneeling Huntress, who then rose, smashed the shield into the charging student, and lifted him off the ground, using his own momentum to throw him over and behind her. Weiss' eyes glanced towards the display above the stage again.

**[Grey 95% - 89% Winchester]**

"Only three…?" Ruby asked aloud in audible disbelief, to which the heiress had to agree. While Cardin had not taken any beating during that last clash, his onslaught on Ms. Grey had been quite brutal, or so it seemed.

"So that's the strategy…" Weiss mumbled, but Ruby was able to hear it.

"Huh?"

"She's tiring him, look."

As the heiress said it, Ms. Grey countered another of Cardin's attacks. This time he swiped from right to left, which forced her to parry the attack with her sword instead of her shield. The seasoned Huntress guided the mace along the front to her right side, again using the momentum of her opponent against him, but suddenly stopped her own move, and smacked the pommel of her sword into his face, much in the motion of a spear being thrust – Weiss could see the shield moving towards Cardin during this move.

The Huntress seemed to have done what the heiress was assuming, as the class watched Cardin tumble away from her again. "Whoa!" Ruby suddenly exclaimed, nudged Weiss, and pointed to the display after getting the heiress' attention. Cardin's Aura seemed to have dropped to 83%, just by that pommel strike.

"Talk about a critical hit…" the heiress could hear Yang say from behind her, which she deemed to be a good explanation. But the seasoned Huntress continued her defensive strategy, exchanged blows with Cardin, but came out on top of him every time – his Aura depleted faster than hers did. Weiss could overhear Pyrrha and Jaune talk about her swordplay, and how he could improve his own abilities by watching Ms. Grey. _Pyrrha's right. Her fighting style could be advantageous to him._ Weiss took another look at the display.

**[Grey 92% - 75% Winchester]**

As Cardin hit the 75% threshold, the duel suddenly changed. Ms. Grey started to move more rapidly, bringing well placed kicks into play in order to throw him off balance. And every time she succeeded in that, a sword strike followed. However, it took Ms. Grey several direct hits to bring Cardin's Aura further down by a relatively low percentage. Meanwhile, he was not able to place any hit that took more than two percent of the seasoned Huntress' Aura at once, and he could not land any follow up strikes. She kept disrupting his momentum, which he needed to actually overpower his opponents, Weiss could detect.

Eventually, Professor Goodwitch halted the duel with the outcome 90% of Ms. Grey's Aura remaining, and 66% of Cardin's.

"Well then, class," the professor spoke up, "Can anyone tell us why Mr. Winchester would have lost in the long run?" she asked, as he sat down, obviously not happy with the results he had today.

Pyrrha answered the question: "It appears Ms. Grey would have gone more to the offense as the duel progressed. I could see Cardin adjust the movements of his body to the momentum of his weapon, but he wasn't able to cope with the disruptions Ms. Grey put him through properly."

"That would be a good observation, Ms. Nikos. Does anyone have something to add?" Prof. Goodwitch asked the class. "Ms. Schnee, what else could you see?"

Weiss was surprised by the professor's sudden choice, although somebody must have raised their hands. "Hm, I could not get behind the strategy of Ms. Grey. At first I thought she was baiting him, and then tiring him… I suppose, that was exactly, what she did: She stayed unpredictable by switching up the approach irregularly," Weiss answered in her usual manner.

Prof. Goodwitch nodded in Agreement. "Yes, Ms. Schnee. It appears Ms. Grey taught you a lesson, while she was at it, class: Do not fall into a fighting routine."

Prof. Goodwitch continued to analyze Ms. Grey's performance with the class, while Weiss herself thought about the symbols on Ms. Grey's equipment, and the similarities to the mask's symbol she and her team had found earlier. The art style was definitely similar, if not even the same. Was there a connection between the Emerald Ghosts and the White Knight, other than her former team mates, or squad mates, as she referred to them as, being suspected to actually BE the Emerald Ghosts? Headmaster Ozpin seemed to be convinced, that the latter was the case. Did she know about this, however? Ms. Grey just sat on the stairs leading up to the stage, weapon still in hand, and watched the class discuss her performance silently, and before long, lunchtime approached.

The heiress and the seven students she proudly called friends, sat at their usual table, team RWBY in that particular order on the one side, and team JNPR on the other, with Nora naturally sitting next to Ren. The main topic of today's talking was, as it was to be expected, the performance of the White Knight. Weiss was actually tired of it, having slight difficulties eating her meal in a proper manner, because of her handicapped arm. That was the reason she had not been paying attention for the most part of the conversation, but instead wondered about the whole evaluation thing. However, sometimes Weiss did listen in, because the opinions of the others about Ms. Grey differed far from her personal experience with that woman – a curiosity the heiress could not simply ignore.

"She surely is one tough Huntress," Yang said in admiration.

"And strong as well," Pyrrha added. "I mean, it takes a lot of physical strength to, well, manhandle a heavy armored fighter like Cardin like that," she then stated, mimicking the movements of Ms. Grey, when she had thrown Cardin above and behind herself.

Yang wanted to continue the conversation, when Blake nudged her ever so slightly. The blonde gave her girlfriend one of warmest smiles Weiss had ever seen up until that point. "Alright, people, change of topic!" Yang then announced, and stood up. "Blake and I have an announcement to make, at least to you guys," she then added, pointing towards Jaune and his team. After Blake rose to her feet hesitantly, Yang told the others about the relationship between herself and the black haired girl, who blushed so much in the process, Ruby could not help but giggle to it.

"Congratulations," Jaune spoke up as the first of team JNPR. The others simply nodded in agreement. It was in that moment, Weiss made a decision: The battle against her fear, yet unknown to her, shall begin at that moment. So she stood up, and placed her right hand on her chest. "I do believe I speak for everyone at this table right now, when I say: We're happy for both of you," she then said in a proud tone, trying to be as honest as she could be. At first there was no reaction, but then Nora and Ren started to knock on the wooden table, and were joined by the rest of the group immediately after.

"Well said, Weiss," Pyrrha praised the heiress, while Jaune nodded in agreement.

"Simple choice of words, but very fitting and effective," Ren added. "Couldn't have done this better myself."

"Of course you could've, Ren!" Nora protested. "You're the master of words, poetry, and pancakes!"

"Especially pancakes!" Jaune jested, which caused everybody – including Ren – to laugh.

As the couple and Weiss sat down again, Blake leaned against her partner, quite relieved. Her happy smile passed onto the others at the table over time, including the heiress. She could not help but adore Ruby's smile in particular, although it was covered most of the time – the little rose was busy eating her meal. Weiss drifted into her trail of thought again, regarding the connection between the White Knight and the Emerald Ghosts, which continued for the remainder of the day, but lead to no epiphany or conclusion.

* * *

><p>In the evening, the situation inside the dorm room of team RWBY made Weiss feel uncomfortable for some reason. And the heiress could not tell what the reason could have been. Yang and Blake were sitting on the blonde's bed, the Faunus girl between the legs of her girlfriend. Yang was embracing her lover, while they were reading a book together – a love novel, most likely.<p>

Weiss caught herself looking at certain areas of Ruby's physique – which was of course inappropriate – every time Yang decided to kiss or stroke Blake as a sign of affection, which made the latter return the more or less intimate gestures she had been receiving. And while Ruby pretended to be grossed out by it – or maybe even was grossed out – she decided to play a video game on her Scroll to distract herself from the lovebirds. The little rose lay in Weiss' bed, for obvious reasons, while doing so. Weiss' looks at Ruby went by unnoticed, but the confusion caused by them made the heiress furious. Why would she even consider doing such a thing, let alone do it? The annoying sounds of Ruby's seemingly action packed game and the whispered talk and giggling of the couple eventually reached a breaking point inside Weiss, and she suddenly stood up, and rushed towards the door.

"Something wrong, Weiss?" Yang asked.

"I…" Weiss thought about what to say next for a brief moment. She did not know if or what was bothering her in that moment, so she decided to avoid the question for the time being. "I need to step outside for a bit, take a walk."

"Okay," Yang replied, and then snuggled against Blake; much to the latter's delight. "Don't be home late," she added, and grinned at the heiress afterwards. Weiss took a deep breath, and just left the room. Yang laughed quietly, as the door was shut, and Weiss rushed outside the building. There was nobody to be found on her way out, and it got windy outside over time.

The heiress assumed everyone to be either in their dorm rooms or other interior facilities of the Academy, like the training room or even the Arena, since there was nobody outside either. The heiress decided to just wander around a bit. As she did so, her thoughts trailed to a certain little rose, who sometimes just 'explored' the Academy by wandering around aimlessly – just as Weiss was doing in that moment. She had been wandering around for quite some time as she realized that the sun was about to set, and found herself in an outlying area of the campus she had never been before. It was a garden, with several kinds of roses arranged neatly to complement the colors of those next to them. Chest high hedges surrounded the garden itself, and in the middle of it a couple of tables could be found. Weiss just then noticed to figures sitting at one such table. As she approached she recognized Prof. Ozpin and Erydias Grey, and stopped by a conveniently placed oak tree, which blocked their vision towards her – if they would have decided to look that way, anyway. But that was not likely to happen since they were having a heated discussion about something, and while Weiss could not hear much of what was said, she could see and feel rage building up in- and outside of Ms. Grey as they continued; visible via her body language. _Damn it, Blake would be useful here._

Eventually the seasoned Huntress grabbed the table they have been sitting at, and threw it away in the outburst of rage Weiss had anticipated. She dared compare this to the ones Yang tended to have. The conclusion was simple: Yang was worse, since hers happened more rapidly when they did. However, Ms. Grey then just stood there, and stared the Headmaster down, who did not even seem to consider giving in. He put his right hand on her shoulder, and said something to Ms. Grey, before placing the table back where it belonged. Weiss could see him place some papers on the table before he left, with the intention to go the way she had been coming. In an attempt to make it look like she just arrived, Weiss started walking again, taking in the garden once more in the process.

"Good evening, Miss Schnee," he greeted her politely while he passed.

"Good evening, Sir," the heiress greeted him just as politely, if not even more so, and let him pass. After he was out of sight Weiss turned her attention back to Ms. Grey. She was sitting at the table again, holding her black Fedora in her hands. As Weiss came closer, the heiress could see that the seasoned Huntress just looked at the item lost in thought, sad even. The glimpse Weiss was able to take of Ms. Grey's face was too short to actually be conclusive; the Huntress noticed the heiress, and put the Hat back on her head quickly. She kept her face hidden as she spoke up. "Good evening, Weiss," Ms. Grey said politely, though somewhat sad. The heiress' suspicion appeared to be right; the seasoned Huntress was saddened by something – something Prof. Ozpin had said, most likely.

"Good evening, Miss Grey," Weiss greeted her as politely as she could be.

"What brings you to this place?" the seasoned Huntress asked, still hiding her face behind the Fedora.

"I…" Weiss was not sure where that question or her answer to it would lead, and so she thought about her choice of words mid-sentence. "I was just taking a walk," she then answered.

"I see, but isn't it a bit late for that?" Ms. Grey then inquired.

"Well… I just needed to get out of the room, I suppose…"

"Your dorm room, I take it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"May I ask why?"

Weiss deemed it a good think that the conversation moved away from herself and Ms. Grey alike, and so she answered almost casually: "I needed to get away from the lovebirds and the noise of Ruby's game, so I went out of the dormitory, chose a direction, and ended up here."

The heiress tensed up when Ms. Grey repeated the word 'lovebirds' monotonously.

"Yang got her boyfriend into your room?" the Huntress then asked. _What did you do now, Weiss?_ The heiress got angry at herself again, since she was in no position to tell anyone about the relationship between Yang and Blake.

"Uhm, I… Am actually not supposed to talk about it… It just slipped out," Weiss then answered hesitantly.

"It's Blake, am I right?" Ms. Grey inquired, followed by a long drawn sigh. She still did not show her face, but her mood seemed to change from somewhat saddened and downed to something else, Weiss could not grasp. Weiss nodded subconsciously, which made Ms. Grey sigh out loud again.

"Can you imagine what one of them would feel like, if something happened to the other?" the Huntress then inquired.

"Y-yes…" Weiss answered immediately. Of course she already knew how it felt to see an injured friend suffer, although she was not as close to Ruby as Yang would be for Blake, and vice versa. The Huntress at the table just took a deep breath, and then asked the heiress for a pencil. Naturally Weiss had one on her. As she handed it over to the Huntress, a quick glance was enough to tell Weiss that the papers Prof. Ozpin had handed to Ms. Grey were a contract. _…as a tutor?_ The heiress wondered, as she watched the Huntress sign the contract. She returned the pencil to Weiss afterwards, took the contract, and stood up.

"Thank you, Weiss. If you would excuse me, I need to prepare myself. See you around," Ms. Grey said, and left. There the heiress was… Alone… Again… And full of questions. At first she took a seat at the table, but then she literally rushed back to her dorm room. Weiss had gotten so used to the noise of the trio she called her team mates over their time together, the heiress could not stand being all by herself for too long; in fact, it had been much too long in the past. Her age of solitude had been over when she had first set foot into the very dorm room she just entered.

It was quiet, though. Yang and Blake fell asleep in each other's arms, while Ruby had been sleeping with her scroll still running the game she had been playing when Weiss left. She took the device out of Ruby's hand and after a brief glance of what she had used to keep herself occupied with, the heiress learned that the little rose must have had finished a stage before falling asleep. _Hm, it would be kind of bad if she lost her progress there…_ Weiss thought to herself, and clicked around the game's menu until she finally found the save button, and put it to its intended use. After that she folded the scroll and put it on the end table, before the heiress covered Ruby carefully. Weiss' left hand stayed at Ruby's chest for a few seconds, before she stroked the head of the little rose gently, which caused the latter to smile happily and sheepishly in her sleep.

"Good night, Ruby," the heiress whispered, before she changed to her nightgown, and climbed into the upper bed. There, she found rest rather quickly, and looked forward to the coming days of her life – things were about to change, and she would start the next day.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Trails of thought<br>**

**Greetings, dear readers. It's been a while since the last chapter, but one particular passage of this one had been very difficult to create in a way that made sense. And after I figured that out, the writing went on rather slowly. In order to pick up the pace again, I need feedback, though.**

**Please comment, criticize (in a constructive way), and feel free to suggest content for future chapters as you see fit.**

**Sincerely**

**Erythreas**


	13. 13 - Trails of thought

Weiss awoke from one of the most peaceful slumbers she had had in a long time. She already had gotten used to the tilt Ruby's bed was in since she had attached it to the ceiling of their shared dorm room. "Why didn't we ever order actual bunk beds?" the heiress mumbled to herself, still half asleep as she slipped out of the bed and let herself down to the floor, carefully this time. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, which meant no lectures for the day, and the teams RWBY and JNPR had planned a shopping tour through Vale Central Mall. With Ruby's Birthday now just a week away, the heiress was bound to get her a fitting present. With a little bit of observation and some extra help of Blake Weiss found just the thing: The newest installment of the 'Souls' book series by the name of 'Lost Souls'. However, Jaune – of all people – had suggested the addition of a personal touch to the present, like a ribbon or something along those lines, which Weiss actually deemed not a good, but a great idea. A mere ribbon did not suffice the heiress' standards, of course, but she already had something else in mind. But first things first: Her shower was in order, followed by the remaining preparations for the day. The shower itself went by more quickly than usual, and Weiss started to imagine Ruby's possible reactions to her gift in particular.

Would it be one of her cute squeals of joy, followed by a rushed invasion of the heiress' personal space for a hug of gratitude?

Would it be a more reserved 'thank you', since Weiss was not expected to give much thought to things like these?

Would it be disappointment for the lack of creativity by the heiress, even? It was quite obvious to all of her friends that Ruby was a fan of that book series.

Weiss concluded that her first thought would most likely be Ruby's reaction. Although she still was not used to being touched without being asked beforehand, the heiress did not mind the thought of it. In fact, she played different scenarios in her head in order to conclude the best course of action – or reaction in that regard – when it happened. Returning the hug seemed off to her at first, because nobody would be expecting it. On the other hand, Ruby and Weiss had gotten along very well the last couple of days. Scolding the little rose for another assault on her personal space was off the table for Weiss, since she knew Ruby meant well. No, the heiress was certain that she was going to let the hug happen, and started preparing words for her answer, when it would happen. Praise for her first duel after the incident, although she lost to Blake, would definitely be in order, while the heiress would be at it. And while everyone was glad Ruby recovered rather quickly – Pyrrha would be back in shape in time for Ruby's birthday party – the heiress herself was just glad that her failure leading up to Ruby's condition in the first place had been reduced to just a minor detail. To put it in Yang's words: "Yo, princess! What's the hold up?"

_Wait a minute… That isn't, what she said,_ Weiss thought to herself, and looked at the alarm clock inside the bathroom in confusion. She had been in here for one hour, thinking about Ruby and herself for the last forty minutes, at least brushing her hair absent mindedly while doing so.

"Oh, ehm… Sorry, thinking again," she then replied loudly, and rushed her finishing touches to her hair, tiara, and combat skirt before leaving the bathroom she had been blocking hastily. Yes, Weiss had been thinking much lately, drifting away almost every time – even during classes. She had reassured her friends time and time again that she was alright. However, she was just lost in her thoughts again when Blake decided to be next in the bathroom. While Yang just followed her lover with her eyes as Blake started to undress before she actually had entered the bathroom, let alone closed the door Weiss just stood there, and thought about the metaphorical cherry on top of Ruby's gift. Blake did close the door after winking at Yang. "She's teasing me again…" the blonde groaned. Weiss could feel her face getting warm at the thought of that certain tension building up between the two lovers; it had been going like that for two days now, and it started to annoy Weiss, whose trail of thought had been interrupted again.

"How?" Ruby asked suddenly, "She didn't do anything mean, did she?"

_Oh, innocent Ruby…_ Weiss thought to herself and managed to keep her snicker in check.

"Y-you're awake, Ruby," Yang pretended to just have realized – badly. But before Yang could come up with some sort of excuse, Ruby seemed to have an epiphany, as her beautiful silver eyes widened.

"Oh, THAT stuff… Eww…" Ruby simply grumbled to herself, and sat down on Weiss' bed in order to inspect the scar on her right leg, after taking off her pajama pants of course. While Yang prepared her clothes for the day, Weiss could not help but to look at Ruby's leg as well. The scar was not as distinctive as the heiress had feared, although it went from the middle of Ruby's thigh to her ankle; it was just an almost white line running down the leg. Weiss' field of view included the black underwear of her partner, adorned with dark red laces around her thighs and ornamental seams at the front side of the panty, covering her- _WHAT are you doing?! _Weiss snapped at herself internally, and took a seat at her desk hastily. Her face was even warmer than in the moment Blake had teased Yang, and her stomach tingled for an unknown reason. From her desk, the heiress looked at Yang and Ruby, who luckily did not realize what she had been looking at – she hoped. Weiss took a deep, somewhat nervous breath. _What was that? You are supposed to care about her well being, not her taste in lingerie. Why does she even wear something like that in the first place, and why do I even bother?!_ Again, Weiss was confused. It was a good looking piece of lingerie, and there was no doubt that it suited Ruby well, but why? Why was- "Weiss?"

Startled by Ruby's voice, the heiress shook her head, and hopefully all those inappropriate thoughts out of it, before looking at her partner.

"Y-yes?" she replied, surprised by the fact that Ruby stood right in front of her, wearing just her usual tank top with the cute red teddy bear print on the front, right in the middle of her chest, and the panty Weiss had been looking at way too long.

"You're drifting away again," the little rose said concerned, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I… I just felt bad again for what happened…" Weiss admitted, although it was partly an excuse. She tended to fall back into the feeling of guilt, despite the fact that everyone, especially the sisters, had acknowledged the events as an accident; it happened mainly when Ruby's leg hurt.

"Okay," the little rose simply said, and put a hand on the heiress' left shoulder. "There's no need to," Ruby then added with a smile so beautiful, the heiress actually smiled herself. Then Ruby suddenly yelled: "My turn!" She then stormed into the bathroom, after Blake had reemerged from it, leaving Yang and Blake some time to exchange caresses.

* * *

><p>The rest of the morning routine went on without further disturbances, and after having breakfast together, all eight friends went to the landing pads, and used a shuttle to go to the City of Vale. Jaune's motion sickness had gotten the better of him, and Weiss actually pitied him, while he was fighting his own body in order to keep the little breakfast he had inside his intestines. She even joined Pyrrha in patting his back for comfort, before he eventually regained his composure. The heiress then took over supporting Pyrrha with her crutches, so that Jaune would have some additional time to calm himself again. The Spartan insisted on using those supports instead of a wheelchair for reasons Weiss could only associate with pride, but neither of them got into detail about these things on their way to Vale Central Mall, while Nora talked, and Ren listened, Blake and Yang had a chat of their own, Jaune had successfully kept his breakfast in, and Ruby exclaimed her excitement about the shopping tour she had been looking forward to since the day the group decided to do it on several occasions. It did not take too long before they reached their destination, and Jaune took over Pyrrha.<p>

"So, here we are, friends: Vale Central Mall," Ruby exclaimed while standing on a bench as if she was giving an important speech, "What shall we do first?"

"The Arcade?" Yang suggested.

"Shopping tour, Yang," Blake intervened, and both laughed. "I'd say we start with some actual shopping, maybe some clothes," the black haired girl with the bow suggested.

"Oh yeah, I need a new pair of boots," Nora added.

Pyrrha just sighed, and cringed in pain. "What's wrong, Pyrrha?" Jaune then asked her quietly, while the others were discussion their first course of action.

"It hurts," she admitted, and shook her head, "I forgot the painkillers, I'm afraid."

"You put weight on it, huh?" Jaune then inquired, and earned a nod by the Spartan. He nodded afterwards. "Then let's sit you down first," he then proposed, and immediately brought his partner to the bench Ruby had been using as a podium, on which she sat with a relieved groan.

"I'm too young to feel this old…" Pyrrha complained jestingly, and smiled somewhat embarrassed at the others.

This forced break for Pyrrha's sake came in handy, however, since the rest of the bunch was still deciding what to do first – aside from making a stop at the drug store for some medication, of course. It took another five minutes to finally make the decision to go to the upper floor of the mall, where most of the clothing stores were clustered. As the group went inside, up the first set of escalators, Jaune rushed inside 'Doge's Drugstore' to get a small box of painkillers for Pyrrha. The kind of pain the Spartan was currently in made appear like she was whiny to some extent, or maybe she was in a lot of pain. Either way, Ren had taken a look at Pyrrha's knee before they continued their way inside the mall and could not find anything worrying, much to everyone's relief. Weiss would have actually felt bad for her red haired friend, who had been almost bedridden that past week – aside from attending her lectures Pyrrha had not much to do. Weiss had learned that the Spartan did not stay at the infirmary on her own accord, so if anything would have gotten to Prof. Goodwitch for instance, the heiress was sure that she would have ordered Pyrrha to back down from her decision. Her pride may even- "Excuse me, Miss?" Weiss heard a man speak up behind her, and turned around startled. "You're kind of standing in the way," he continued, and Weiss immediately stepped aside to the right, making way for the man who appeared to be a staff member of the mall – a janitor of some sort, or a mechanic.

"Oh, sorry, Sir," the heiress apologized in her best manners.

"No problem. Thanks," he replied politely, and went on his way without further ado.

"…happened again…" Weiss mumbled to herself, as she followed her friends along the many shop windows, stands, and an ice cream parlor. Naturally, Ruby, the lover of all sweets, had to take a look at the display. "Ruby, it's too early for that," Weiss said plainly, not even remotely close to being agitated.

"It's NEVER too early for the sweetness of ice cream," the little rose replied with a sheepish smile at the heiress, who found herself in awe of the sheer cuteness of Ruby's face. Those silver eyes had always fascinated Weiss for some reason, especially when the little rose had been happy over something, or laughing about some other thing.

Like during the lecture of Prof. Port the last day, when he was boasting about one of his many achievements in hunting down an alpha Beowulf all alone, Ruby had decided to play Battleships with Yang – across the whole lecture room. The latter had gotten her girlfriend involved, and Ruby had tried to hire the heiress as her advisor a couple of times before she had given in eventually. Weiss liked the game for its unknowns, since one would have to locate the opposing ships, while one would also hope the own armada would not be found too quickly. After the heiress had guided her partner to five consecutive hits, Yang had shouted: "Oh, gods damn it!"

"My thoughts, exactly, Ms. Xiao Long," the professor had replied to that, still oblivious actually nobody, not even Weiss herself, had been paying attention that day. Ruby had started snickering so hard, her eyes had filled with tears, while they had been almost closed. That expression had- "Weiss?" Ruby spoke up to the heiress in Vale Central Mall.

_Oh not again! _She berated herself internally, and looked at Ruby. "Yes, Ruby?" Weiss replied.

"Where were you this time?" the little rose asked then.

"…Battleships," Weiss answered, and could not help but grin at Ruby, who started to snicker again the way the heiress just had thought about.

"What made you think about that?" Ruby inquired as they joined up with the others again, after the little rose caught her breath again.

"Well… The sheepish smile you just gave me…" the heiress admitted openly.

"How?" Ruby seemed to be confused about what her partner just told her.

"I don't know," said partner answered equally confused. Weiss did not even look at Ruby. The little rose left it at that. She got distracted by Nora, who loudly declared a certain set of boots to be hers. Said set of boots was so brutally pink, Weiss thought that color should be illegal – and Yang said what Weiss was thinking, causing a playful brawl between her and Nora. Ren just stood by and watched, smiling to himself. Nora and Yang stopped, as the rest of the bunch went inside the store, where they decided to split up: Nora dragged Ren along with her, Blake simply followed Yang around, and Jaune took Pyrrha to the nearest bench to sit and talk, while they were waiting for the medication to kick in. Ruby went on alone, and so Weiss decided to take look around where the dresses were. The quality of the materials used in these rather cheap dresses was still good, but could not be compared to the quality of the fabric the heiress was used to wear. After a thorough inspection of one dress in particular – a simple white one with a ribbon at the front and center – Weiss concluded the value for money of said dress was actually decent. She considered buying it for its modest elegancy, something the heiress had never suspected to find a common clothing store, but left the dress where it was for the time being. Weiss decided to move on, and somehow ended up in the lingerie department of said store, where she found Ruby again.

_Why this combination again? _Weiss thought.

"Oh, hey," Ruby greeted her partner. The little rose appeared to be slightly embarrassed as the heiress approached her.

"Ruby, why are you here?" Weiss asked, as if she did not already suspect the reason – Ruby was getting a new set of lingerie for herself.

"Getting a look at some potential new underwear," the little rose even admitted openly. The heiress could not understand why someone as young as her partner would already be interested in those kinds of things… Unless… She was already interested in physical contact with someone. Weiss did not dare delve into these trails of thought any further.

"They're quite beautiful, aren't they?" Ruby then stated, thankfully dragging Weiss back to reality in the process. They took a look at a couple of sets, which were on display right in front of them. They were shaped very similar to the one Ruby had worn this morning, and Weiss wondered if the little rose was wearing one in that moment.

"Yes, they are," the heiress agreed, focusing on the end of that conversation already, "but I was just passing through, so if you would excuse me? I need to find a restroom." Weiss may have lied to Ruby, but it was for a good cause: Said lie was her ticket to separate herself from the group in order to get the birthday present for Ruby – which was supposed to be a surprise, after all.

"Don't go off too far, then," Ruby remarked, which made Weiss smirk a little bit. _It was you, who walked off alone first._

Having thought that, the heiress immediately made her way to the bookstore she had seen on the way to the clothing store. It went by the name 'The Bookcase', and the layout of the shop just fitted its name. Aside from books many different magazines were on display in bookcases, and even the counter resembled one. A bear Faunus by the name of Maritime Blue – he had a nametag – greeted the heiress.

"Hello, Miss. May I be of service?" the tall, somewhat plump man asked politely, but with a bit of nervousness in his voice. _He probably recognizes you, Weiss. Stay polite._

"Hello, Mr. Blue," she greeted him, and smiled politely, "I think you may be. I'm looking for 'Lost Souls', do you offer this book, Sir?"

"Yes, but of course, Miss. Do wish to purchase a hardcover, or a pocket book?"

"Hardcover, if you don't mind, Sir?"

"Yes, Miss. Would you follow me, please?" Weiss noticed that this man in particular was way more polite than his coworkers, who were serving other customers, as she followed him to the 'Fantasy' section of the store. There he let her choose one of the hardcover versions of the book in question. Weiss took the liberty of reading the blurb, before handing it over to Mr. Blue, and following him to the counter. After entering several codes into the cash register, Weiss remembered something very important. "Oh, would you please gift-wrap the book for me?" she asked the shop assistant.

"Of course," he answered, and did just that, before returning his attention to her. "So, that would be 75 Lien, Miss Schnee," he said, confirming what Weiss had suspected by addressing her by her name – accidently, as his expression told her.

"I'll use my card, Mr. Blue," the heiress replied, and handed over her usual means of payment. He put the card in the designated device, pushed a button, and returned the card to its owner.

"Transfer completed," the bear Faunus read what the display of the register said, "Thank you for your purchase, Miss Schnee."

"I have to thank you, Mr. Blue," the heiress replied, "I have to say, the customer service in 'The Bookcase' is one of the best I've seen," she then added a bit louder than necessary, while the shop assistant packed the book, which just happened to be wrapped in light blue wrapping paper, much to Weiss' delight, into a small paper bag. When the heiress left 'The Bookcase', she could hear other people inside talking about the Schnee heiress praising the store, and she was proud of the good deed she had done.

"Okay," she then spoke to herself, "now to the personal touch, the actual challenge." Weiss knew she should not take too long for this, since her excuse to Ruby had been a simple restroom break. As she passed the 'Bejeweled Jewelry', the heiress stopped in her motion, and made a few steps backwards. There it was, the addition to the gift for Ruby. It was a ring, colored icy blue, and with a red adornment on it, which looked like it could be a flower – it required some imagination to see it, but nevertheless, this was perfect. As the heiress looked at the price of 225 Lien, she stayed in front of the jewelry store for a moment. An addition to a gift which was worth three times the amount of money as the gift itself seemed a bit off balance to her. However, it was the will that counted, not the monetary value of the exchanges. So she went inside the store, bought the ring, and left for the clothing store she assumed the others were still in, or at least close by. She did not take long, however, to find her friends again. Yang was the first.

"There you are," the blonde exclaimed, "That was a long bathroom break you took," she then added.

"Excuse me?" Weiss inquired, a bit confused about the statement. _Ruby must've told her._

"You were gone for almost half an hour, princess," Yang then said. Weiss frowned and looked around for Ruby, but the little rose was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, I slipped away to get Ruby's birthday present, so…" Weiss then answered.

"Ah~" The brawler nodded and smiled in understanding. "Blake just took off to get hers done."

"Where are the others?"

"Pyrrha and Jaune went on to an armor shop around that corner over there," Yang explained and pointed to her left. "Nora and Ren are… Somewhere, and Ruby's still in there," she explained further while pointing at the clothes store behind her. The heiress nodded to that.

"Did you agree on a meeting point?" Weiss inquired.

"The ice cream parlor we came by on our way here, in…" Yang took a look at her scroll, "about ten minutes."

"Well then, I'll wait there, then. What about your gift?" the heiress inquired. Yang just laughed and waved it off.

"Took care of it yesterday, don't you worry, princess," the brawler then bragged. She had joined Weiss on her way to the meeting point, where they prepared three tables and eight chairs for themselves and the rest of the group to sit at. Jaune and Pyrrha were about ten minutes late, and while Yang snickered to it – and made some utterly inappropriate suggestions – Weiss just blamed the Spartan's injury for the delay. All of the others were discussing their recent purchases, when Weiss realized, she only had Ruby's birthday present and nothing else. Luckily it slipped by unnoticed, for Nora shared the tale of her new video game, as if acquiring it had been some sort of heroic quest. Weiss did not pay too much attention as her ice cream was served, along with those of the others, of course. While Ruby had ordered a literal pile of strawberry and chocolate flavored ice cream, the heiress had tried to get something at least less hazardous for her health, called a fruit cup. It consisted of vanilla ice cream topped by several bits of fruits, including, but not limited to, oranges, kiwis, and bananas. Yang shared a ridiculously oversized banana split with Blake, both of them playfully fooling about with each other while enjoying it. Ren watched Pyrrha and Jaune essentially doing the same with their dish of ice cream – a mix of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry with whipped cream on top of it – But they were much more subtle in doing so. Or maybe the heiress was just imagining it, blaming Yang and Blake for it. Nora did not have any ice cream, being too busy talking about shooting things with a variety of weapons for whatever prestige levels were supposed to be. However, she had ordered a larger version of what Weiss had, and Ren made sure it would not go to waste, while he seemed to actually be listening to his childhood friend.

* * *

><p>After the ice cream break, which Weiss declared to be the replacement for an actual lunch for the sheer amount of calories she had taken in, the group decided to follow Yang's suggestion from earlier, and went to the arcade. Weiss took it a bit slower, though, browsing the displays in the shop windows they were passing. It was good for the heiress to occupy herself with something else but her thoughts.<p>

"Can I ask you something? Err, I mean may I ask you something?" Ruby broke up a brief period of silence between the two. It appeared Ruby stayed a bit behind as well, most likely for the question she wanted to ask.

"Can, may, just ask away," the heiress rhymed by accident, to which the little rose just snickered.

"Are you happy with today?" Ruby then asked in a more serious tone. She little rose obviously wanted some feedback to this idea, which had been essentially hers to begin with.

"All things considered: Yes," Weiss answered plainly, "But I don't think it's already over, is it?"

"Of course not. We still have the arcade, trust me, it will be fun!" Ruby exclaimed, and gestured wildly while doing so.

"You do realize I've never been to such a place before, correct?" Weiss inquired.

"You told us about four or five times the other day, and I haven't forgotten it," Ruby answered with one of her cute smiles that almost made Weiss getting lost in thoughts about the developing beauty of her partner. It was funny and strange to the heiress that she had actually managed to stay focused since she had gotten the gift for Ruby. However, that was exactly it: She needed to focus on the conversation to not- _Happened again!_ she screamed internally. "Video games are not my thing, Ruby," Weiss then started, but her partner never let her finish that sentence.

"Good thing the arcade offers a variety of other, more physical activities," Ruby interrupted in a commercial manner.

"Oh, yes, that's how you convinced me to come along and give it a try," Weiss noticed, and nodded. The partners then joined up with their friends, and entered the Vale Central Mall arcade. Weiss' first impression of the place was somewhat outlandish. The arcade was mainly one large, dimly lit hall, with many gaming machines aligned right next to each other, creating hallways. They came in different sizes, shapes, and were adorned with somewhat blindingly bright lights, flashing irregularly or as reactions to the inputs of players. Add the loud, mainstream music on top of the noises the machines were making, and Weiss believed to be able to understand what Blake and other Faunus with enhanced hearing must have felt like on the streets of cities like Vale or Atlas. Ruby had grabbed the heiress' left hand, and dragged her to the left side of the hall, where strangely built tables could be found. 'Air Hockey' had been written all over at least one side of these things, and Ruby literally placed Weiss at one side of one such air hockey table.

"Come on, let's play," Ruby almost shouted – and she had to, considering the noise inside that place.

"How does this even work?" Weiss asked much louder than would have been necessary. Ruby put a Lien chip with the worth of five in the machine, which then lit up and started to hiss, before answering the question.

"You'll have to push the puck," Ruby started, as she held said thing up for demonstration purposes, "into my goal over here." The little rose pointed at a relatively wide slot in the framework of the table. Weiss immediately looked for such a thing on her side, and found it. Yang and Blake had joined their team mates, as team JNPR also had, in order to watch this unfold. Blake handed two strange objects to Weiss and Ruby – the pushers, which were to be used, as it turned out – and inserted the puck into a slot on the side of the table.

"Ready?" Yang asked. Ruby nodded, grinning in excitement.

"I suppose…" Weiss mumbled, and the game began.

It was a hectic back and forth between the two, when Weiss finally got the hang of it. It was a test of reflexes and perception. The heiress liked the fact that she could actually plan ahead, at least to some extent, although Ruby's quick reflexes made it nigh impossible for her to score. However, the main point of being here was to have fun, and that was what Weiss actually had – to her surprise, she had to admit – although she lost a couple of games of air hockey against Ruby – naturally, for it was her first – Blake, and Pyrrha – no surprise there, either. At least she managed to pull off wins against Yang, Nora and Jaune – which was a close one. Now that she had a taste of what Ruby had been aiming at in coming to this arcade, Weiss actually tried some of the video games there, but quickly decided that group activities were more to her liking. Hours went by rather quickly, and everybody had a good time, Weiss was sure of it.

* * *

><p>But eventually the bunch had to return to Beacon Academy, and when they did, one of the academy's Bullhead arrived at the landing pads alongside the shuttle the heiress and her friends were in. She would not have given much thought to it, if it had not been for Ms. Grey who emerged from it, a medium sized traveling bag in her left hand, and a metal box on wheels she pulled with her right hand, after she and the pilot had placed said box on the ground carefully.<p>

"Oh, guess who's back," Yang commented the sight all eight were watching right now.

"I wondered where she went. She's a new tutor, after all," Pyrrha added. Of course Weiss could not resist sharing the news of the contract signing she had been a part of with her friends. However, at that day the White Knight simply disappeared. Velvet had seen her board a Bullhead and everyone assumed she had been sent to get her bureaucracy errands done, find an apartment, and so on and so forth. And now she appeared to have gathered some of her stuff on that Saturday – some extra sets of clothes, most likely.

As the Huntress walked towards the students, who were standing right in the way to the living quarters of the academy's staff, she lifted her head and raised the eyebrow over her healthy eye.

"Hello. I didn't expect a welcoming party at this time of day," she said plainly, and somewhat tired. She wore her full armaments, so maybe the weight of those had something to do with said tiredness.

"We just happen to be here, ma'am," Jaune said, and saluted the White Knight. She just groaned angrily at him. "D-did I do something wrong?" he then asked in confusion.

"Just don't salute me," Ms. Grey said. "I hate that."

"Right, sorry."

"No offense taken. Now, what have been up to, if may ask?"

"We've been at the mall," Ruby exclaimed somewhat proud of her accomplishment in organizing the excursion.

"Ah, the classic," the Huntress replied with an amused smile. "Getting your heads free is a good thing."

"Are you going to teach us?" the little rose then asked excitedly.

"Your combat classes, field training sessions, and physical training will fall to me, I think," Ms. Grey answered after thinking for a brief moment.

"Whoa, cool!" Ruby exclaimed, and started bouncing around between her friends, Weiss in particular, happily sharing her excitement with everybody present.

"We'll see about that," the Huntress said plainly, and tipped her hat. "If you would excuse me? I still have some preparations to make."

Of course the group let Ms. Grey take her leave, and the friends went into their respective dorm rooms to prepare for dinner, do some studying, play some games, train, and hide Ruby's birthday presents. Weiss allowed her thoughts to drift away again, after she found a place to hide her present for the little rose: One of her Dust cases should be more than sufficient, since everyone had been forbidden to touch them, especially Ruby since the explosion incident. The heiress had to laugh as she remembered the plain stupid look on Ruby's face after it happened, and was glad that their Auras were able to absorb the potential damage of the small dust cloud completely. But had the incident not been the heiress' fault? It had been her, who had shaken that bottle with Dust around in front of Ruby, causing her to sneeze, after all. During the initiation, Ruby had charged at a Death Stalker alone, and had almost paid the price, had Weiss not intervened. A few weeks later, during combat class, Weiss and Ruby had fought a duel, and the heiress had become so agitated, that she had blown Ruby across the whole training hall with one of her force glyphs, literally smashing the little rose against the far wall. As Weiss remembered the way Ruby had slumped down after that impact, she started to feel bad because of it, although the little rose had stood up immediately afterwards – thanks to her Aura, of course. But why did the heiress feel bad in retrospective, and not when these things actually had occurred? How had she felt during these events? Thinking about it, Weiss had felt a variety of emotions.

She had been furious, because some dolt in a red hood had stumbled into her possessions.

She had been mad at the little show off for not being careful with her life, let alone the ones around her.

She had been annoyed during the duel, because Ruby had denied the heiress her victory time and time again.

But now she felt bad.

She felt bad for overreacting, since none of her possessions had been damaged.

She felt bad for scolding her, when Ruby only had been trying to prove herself to her.

She felt bad for almost hurting her designated partner in a fit of agitation.

And she felt bad for almost killing her friend by accident and then trying to cover it up.

No. No. Those things have been dealt with, they were okay now.

"Hey," Ruby's voice dragged Weiss back to reality in a calm tone, "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing really," Weiss replied, "just sorting my thoughts."

"Oh, sorry for disturbing," Ruby excused herself, "but I thought you would want to come eat something?"

"Yes, Ruby. Good idea."

* * *

><p>A few minutes later the partners found themselves in the cafeteria, having dinner without the rest of team RWBY and without team JNPR. While there were no special or strange occurrences, Weiss could not help but admire Ruby. Not for her looks, although the little rose was pretty – literally no one would argue about that – but for the way she treated people. Although Weiss had shown disdain and arrogance towards Ruby, the little rose never developed a grudge against the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company – quite the opposite happened for some reason. They became friends instead, and when Weiss had admitted that the first time, Ruby just had squealed with joy, and had hugged Weiss tightly. The heiress, while not accustomed to that kind of behavior, had tried her best to return the gesture properly. Now they were sharing one of the few moments they were alone, away from the noisy Yang, observant Blake, chaotic Nora with her guardian Ren, and clumsy Jaune accompanied by Pyrrha. And Weiss liked it. It was not like the rest of the two teams were not her friends, but she had required some time to get used to being surrounded by… Well, friends. Taking things one step at a time, she had spent some time alone with each of them, even Nora. But with Ruby it appeared to be different, yet the heiress had a difficult time figuring out what said difference was.<p>

The heiress followed that trail of thought for quite a while, until she had finished her dinner, as had Ruby. They silently agreed to return to their dorm room. However, at the door Weiss hesitated for a moment. _Was that Yang…? Moaning?_ The heiress tried to listen in carefully, suspecting that the tensions between the lovers had now developed into something more physical – which was about time if the heiress had to share her opinion on that matter. Just as Ruby was about to ask for the reason Weiss did not enter the room, both of them could hear the blonde moan her lover's name.

_Now it's official: They're doing it – about time._ Weiss thought, and could feel the strong blush on her face. She looked at an also blushing Ruby, who in return looked at the heiress in confusion. The latter just nodded to the door of team JNPR's room. Weiss took a while to explain to a rather confused Jaune why she and her partner, who was probably too busy processing the imagery inside her head to actually speak, wanted to stay at their room for at least a couple of hours. After several failed attempts to do so subtly, she almost yelled it very explicitly, but the clumsy guy seemed to get it by himself, at least. Team JNPR, Ruby and Weiss spent the following two and a half hours watching Nora play her new video game, which appeared to be surprisingly rich in lore and storyline behind the characters and events, although the game play itself seemed to be very simplistic. At least all the action on screen was distracting Ruby enough to seemingly forget what was going on in their dorm room at that moment. Weiss on the other hand caught herself more than once trying to imagine what it most likely would look like.

Two and a half hours later, a tired Ruby and an even more tired Weiss stood in front of their room again, and listened. No sound was to be heard. Ruby bravely opened the door with care, trying to be as silent as possible. Weiss took a look at the room after closing the door, while Ruby used her scroll as a makeshift flashlight to maneuver herself through the clothes of Blake an Yang, which were scattered all over the floor. Weiss took the liberty of at least sorting them to two piles, one for each respective owner, while Ruby changed in the bathroom. While the little rose was busy, Weiss opened the window carefully to let in some fresh air. _How could Blake possibly stand this smell in here? _As she thought about that, her gaze went over to the lovebirds, snuggled up against one another, Yang lying on her back, while Blake nestled to her girlfriend from the side where the wall was, as if the cat Faunus was hiding behind her. Luckily the blonde's hair covered the chest area of them both, where the sheets of Blake's bed failed by simple absence. The heiress was about to correct that, when Ruby emerged from the bathroom.

"Just leave them," the little rose whispered, and pulled Weiss away from the couple gently.

"You're right," the heiress replied, and entered the bathroom in order to get ready for bed herself. After leaving the bathroom, Weiss found Ruby already sleeping, her back turned to the room. A gentle smile crept across the heiress' face before she entered her bed – Ruby had decided to go to the upper bed again, which was fine by Weiss. Although she had somewhat expected it, any thoughts about the lovers' act stayed out of the heiress' mind that night. However, the next morning would turn out to be quite the awkward one for Yang in particular, because Ruby just had to ask what her sister and Blake had been doing the evening before, much to Weiss' delight. Aside from that, it was an ordinary Sunday full of preparation for the upcoming lessons at Beacon Academy.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Echoes from the past<strong>

**Hello again, dear readers.**

**First off: Thank you for reading this rather lengthy chapter. I humbly request, as always, feedback of you in form of either critique or suggestions.**

**I'm looking forward to read at least something, I honestly need it.**

**Sincerely**

**Erythreas**


	14. 14 - Echoes of the past

Wednesday, 7:30a.m. The alarm clock was shrieking its terrible call through the room Prof. Ozpin had designated to be my new quarters. Plainly spoken, the staff quarters were exactly like the dormitory, with the perk of having a room for yourself instead of sharing it with your team. However, I was still used to being secluded in a whole house, surrounded by a calm forest, which actually helped me stay that way. However, I was annoyingly angry at the alarm clock, the room, the whole situation the madman of a Headmaster had gotten me into.

"Shut up, already!" I yelled at the device in vain, threw my pillow at it, and missed. I rushed out of bed, and punched the alarm clock into submission. Then I kneeled in the middle of the room, sitting on my heels, placing my hands on the inner sides of my thighs, forming circles with thumbs and pointers, and closing my eyes. That was the way we, now I used to meditate in the morning. It was the way I turned from an angry, bitchy manner to be calm and assertive, which were the requirements for earning trust and respect by subordinates, or students in that particular case. While breathing in a guided manner, I focused my thoughts on the past day, and what had occurred.

I had been avoiding any contact since I had moved here the past weekend. However, Ruby Rose managed to run into me sometimes, and we just talked. She had been accepted to Beacon two years early for showing courage and skill alike during a robbery on 'From Dust 'til Dawn', performed by Roman Torchwick. The Headmaster himself had done that favor to Ruby, and had assigned her as leader of team RWBY after initiation. Seeing things as they were then, I could not tell what the Headmaster's mastermind of insanity had planned for the girls, but there was something going on in the background, I was sure of it.

I rose after my ten minute meditation, undressed, and took a shower. After leaving the bathroom, I had to get some clothes out of my travel bag. _Haven't even bothered unpacking your stuff, yet, hm?_ I thought to myself. As I rummaged through my belongings, I found an old photograph of- "What are you doing here?" I asked the young man portrayed, as if I expected an answer of Silver. I had put his photo in some drawer after leaving Vale and Beacon behind, since every time I saw his red, unkempt beard, the stupid, brash grin on his face, the one tooth he was missing, because I punched it out, or the Fedora on his head, which was actually mine now… I wept. And as it happened, tears were dropping on the frame and glass.

"I don't even blame you," I told Silver, and placed his picture on the shelf gently, before rummaging through the bag again. I was not even looking for clothes at this point, but for the black band that belonged onto the upper right corner of the frame. "You know, the madman knows how to push buttons of mine you didn't even dare get close to," I added jestingly. Luckily, it did not take long to find the band and place it, where it belonged, before actually dressing up in some sort of tutor uniform I came up with back in the woods: A simple, white blouse, the trousers of my suit, which was gray, black leather shoes, and my Fedora. – I went nowhere without this thing since it became mine.

When I was dressed up and ready to go, I met Prof. Port in the hallway. Although I have had my morning meditation some anger boiled deep inside me, but the man did not seem to notice.

"Ah, good morning, Ms. Grey," he greeted in his typical, slightly over energetic tone, "I hear you will hold your first class today. Allow me to wish you luck." As he slightly bounced during his sentence, and the walrus like mustache wobbled about, I could not help but laugh slightly, but quietly. And he either did not care, or simply missed it.

"Good morning, Sir," I answered politely, "and thank you."

"I do believe you will do well with the students, Ms. Grey," he then remarked, "especially with the first year." I had to agree on that, and made my way to the cafeteria, after I ended the exchange of pleasantries with wished of a nice day to him. I headed for the cafeteria in order to get some breakfast, and although the staff had their own area inside the dining hall, I decided to take a seat in the larger students' section. I looked around, watched them and their behavior, and took notes in my head, especially of the newest batch of students. Teams RWBY and JNPR sat as one group, while others joined only their partners, and some even ate alone. A heated discussion broke out between the eight youngsters. It was about improper manners, as far as I could hear. "Oh, this is going to be fun," I thought out loud, and leaned a bit forward in order to watch more closely.

* * *

><p>Admittedly, I started to get a bit nervous as the day went on. Instead of letting me assist already established professors and tutors with their lectures, the mad Headmaster threw me in the deep end, as some sort of trial by fire, I supposed. And of all things, combat class was to be my first lecture to the first year students.<p>

So there I was inside the training hall, fully geared up, in case a duel escalated too far, waiting for the students. I used the time to study the records of the past duels, and found a few interesting things.

The brutish Cardin Winchester – the one I chose as my opponent for the evaluation the week before – preferred to attack his opponents head on. Always. No exceptions. He fought with brute force, and overpowered every opponent who chose to go head on as well.

Blake Belladonna on the other hand fought very avoidant, always aiming to catch her opponents off guard. To that end, she used her blades swiftly and efficiently. "I wonder where you learned that," I thought out loud, as I went on.

Yang Xiao Long behaved similar to Mr. Winchester, but was more agile and flexible. She fought a bit risky, but was capable to hold up a solid defense for a while. She tended to boast around a lot, especially in her last duel.

Ruby Rose was fast. Plain and simple. In addition to that, her fighting style seemed to be very risky, leaving her wide open many times, and on purpose, only to use her speed and agility, along with her fitting semblance, to close those gaps. Her last duel against Blake was fast paced because of both combatants using agility, movement, and momentum over physical strength – although Ruby had a lot of it, because of the sheer size of her weapon. Her injury seemed to have taken a negative influence on her agility, though, and underestimating that effect, the red caped girl had lost to her team mate.

While I could not find any flaw in Pyrrha Nikos' form or performances, the progress of her partner Jaune Arc made me curious. As time had went by, he became better in general, but he appeared to be still finding his style. I found that especially odd when I noticed some similarities between his movements, and those of Pyrrha. _Note to self: Decide how you address the students: By first or by last name._ I thought on a side note. However, this oddity gave me an idea I wanted to try in that very first session of combat class, so I stopped watching those footages, and started preparing the stage with mannequins and targets.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" I heard none other than Weiss speak up behind me. As I turned around, I saw she was the first inside the training hall.

"Yes, Weiss?" _First names it is, then._ I answered politely in tone, but a bit out of breath – those mannequins were heavy.

"What are those for?" she asked, obviously inquiring the purpose of the presence of training mannequins and targets, not the purpose of these items themselves.

"Patience, Weiss. You'll see shortly." That said, I simply continued my preparations just in time before the rest of the students arrived. I could hear them mutter amongst themselves, while I waited for them to settle down.

"Good morning, students," I finally greeted them a bit louder than I had initially intended to. However, my voice still had its somewhat natural authority – or that seemed to be the case, at least – as they quieted down immediately. "My name is Erydias Grey," I then introduced myself, in case some of them had not gotten the news already, "and I am your Tutor in regards of combat, physical, and mental training, as well as field training assignments. As such, I am going to replace Professor Goodwitch in these regards." I noticed some happy faces among the students, but chose to spare them witty or quirky comments.

"Does anyone have an idea what's up with that?" I asked, and pointed behind me over my shoulder, where my army of mannequins was. Not a single hand was raised, though. "Come on, don't be shy. Just give me your best shot," I added with a smirk, as I looked around a group of still confused students. Eventually Jaune put up his hand, and since he was the only one so far, I had to pick him. _Please don't just say-_ "Uhm, training?" _–gods damn it._ I thought, and wanted to bang my head against the closest wall. At least his answer in itself was correct. He earned the laughter of Cardin in the back, and those who I had learned were his team mates.

"What are you geniuses laughing at?" I snapped at them. "His answer is correct. However," I changed my tone to be more friendly and polite as I addressed the blonde swordsman, "it's quite obvious that that was not, what I was getting at. And while we're at it: 'Uhm' is a bad start for a sentence." While I said that, a few other hands were raised. I chose Blake next, but instead of letting her answer my question, I decided to use her and Yang in order to show where I was going – I asked them to join me in front of the class.

"Ready your arms," I ordered them, and they obeyed hesitantly, looking at each other somewhat irritated. It turned out that those two were a suboptimal example for my intentions, since Yang would hardly lose her bracelet weapons. I took a brief moment to come up with a plausible scenario.

"Now we need a bit of imagination," I started to explain what the whole thing was about, "Let's say Blake has been incapacitated, and can't defend herself any more. Yang on the other hand is fine so far, but her weapons simply malfunction. So our fellow Huntress in training would have to defend her partner with her bare hands," I added a little pause for dramatic effect, as I turned to Blake, and reached out for her two swords. "Or, she could use these." Luckily the black haired girl got the hint, and let me show her armaments to the class. I could almost see the first metaphorical light bulbs switch on, while the cogs in other heads seemed to be turning, at least.

"Long story short, I want each pair of partners to exchange their weapons, and teach the other how to use them properly. To start things easily, you may use our plastic friends on the stage here, or the targets, as the need occurs. Any questions?"

Of course there were no questions asked, although I could clearly see that no one had been expecting what I did. I simply watched, as the students started to exchange the various functionalities and modes of their weapons with their respective partners, and took note of what kind of weaponry was actually available. Had I not seen Nora's grenade launcher, hammer combination before, I would have been surprised by that nonsense. On the other hand, Robin had used a light machine gun he could turn into an RPG, of all things. The students scattered across the hall, some already putting their partner's weapon to use. I could not help but snicker quietly as Weiss took Ruby's weapon, which was in its rifle form, and handled it so carefully it was almost not funny anymore. She took aim, looked at the red machinery again, and looked at Ruby as she explained the functionality. When she eventually fired a shot, it startled her so much that she almost dropped the weapon. I walked around between the pairs, making sure weapon discipline was followed at all times, while using some opportunities to learn a bit about my charges.

While most of them took the opportunity of using their partners' weapons more or less seriously, there were some individuals who saw an opportunity to be lazy. I let that slide for the first half that session, for phase two of my devious plan was about to unfold on these guys, known as team CRDL. _Oh, this is going to be fun._ I quietly snickered to myself as I watched Dove Bronzewing and Cardin Winchester struggle to actually hit each other with the weapons their partners used to use. I had left the mannequins and targets where they were, thus adding a few obstacles to the fighting stage. At least Dove seemed to be clever enough to try and utilize them, before he eventually tipped the duel in his favor, and won. Although I thought a punishment for not paying attention was in order, I decided to ditch one that time, since I have already had my fun by embarrassing them in front of their fellow students; one half of the team more than the other.

* * *

><p>The session was over more quickly than I had anticipated, much to my relief. I dismissed the class, informing the students of an upcoming field trip to Forever Fall for some actual hunting exercises, which was going to take place in the near future. I watched them leave the training hall for a brief moment, before I started to tidy the place. However, one student simply did not leave the training hall. It was Weiss.<p>

"Miss Grey?" she eventually asked, as I put the mannequins where they belonged.

"Weiss, why are you still here? Slept during the dismissal?" I asked jokingly, and received an insecure look in return.

"The Headmaster asked me to give you that," she replied after hesitating for a bit, and pulled a woolen mask out of her pouch.

"Oh, that thing…" I remarked. "I've heard of your encounter with those Emerald Ghosts last week. Why does he want me to get involved?"

"We," Weiss was looking for words, and appeared to be focusing a lot on not getting lost in thought. "We think the Emerald Ghosts are your old team, or rather squad mates, and that this mask is some sort of message to you," the girl then explained. I took the mask and inspected it briefly. There was nothing out of the ordinary with the item. Somebody would have found something, which had been sown in. The stylized castle – visible, when holding the mask upside down – reminded me of something, and I started to smirk.

"You did figure out the caste, didn't you?" I asked Weiss, who nodded in return. "Good. It's an inside joke of sorts, meaning a certain bar we tended to hang out at during our time at Beacon. I'm afraid I've forgotten the actual name, but we called it the castle, because there was that medieval theme going on at the place."

"And Professor Ozpin knows about that?" Weiss asked. "I mean, they couldn't possibly have known that you would return here, or that he knew where you were, or how to get into contact with you."

"An error in their logic, maybe…" I assumed, "The Headmaster used to know about the place, but that was more than seven years ago. They probably think he still knows, but it simply had slipped his mind over the years."

I received no answer whatsoever. Her gaze appeared to be somewhat empty, and her mind to be somewhere else, while she was staring at one of the mannequins behind me. I could tell she was daydreaming in the middle of a conversation. While I had been observing the first year students, I noticed that Weiss tended to daydream quite often. I was not sure whether something was keeping the girl's mind busy, or if she was distracting herself. Ruby had given me that idea on one occasion, when I had asked her about the daydreaming of her partner.

"Weiss!" I yelled at her, dragging her back to the present, while startling her in the process.

"Oh… I-I'm sorry," she answered, obviously embarrassed. But then she became agitated. While she did not say a word, I could clearly read it in her body language: An aggressive posture, clenched fists, and a whisper I could not make out. She was berating herself again, most likely, just as she had done back when we first met. I approached the girl.

"What was that about?" I asked, not knowing the intimacy of the question in that moment.

"It's nothing…" she immediately snapped.

"Nothing was quite distractive," I remarked, and I could not help but smirk. That resulted in a defensive outburst.

"I'm a potential danger to my team, I know; especially with my thoughts being everywhere, but the present!" she yelled at me – no, herself. But as sudden as that outburst came, Weiss regained her composure, by force.

"I've got to go," she then said after a short cough, and turned around.

"Wait, Weiss," I said, and placed my left hand on her left shoulder, "How do you feel?"

"Err, excuse me?" she asked in return. Weiss turned around to face me again, and looked at me curiously.

"Don't think, answer the question," I said calmly, and smiled. _Silver…_

"C-confused?" she appeared to guess. I rolled my eyes to that.

"I said answer, not guess…" I explained once more. _I hate you so much right now…_

"Confused," she replied, a bit more secure.

"How do you want to feel?" I placed my hands on her shoulders again, and locked eyes with her. _I'm not seriously doing this…_

"Err…"

"Weiss…" I groaned a bit. Being patient is a trait I had learned over the years, but I still hated repeating myself.

"I have to feel focused."

"That was not the question, Weiss." While my statement was true, her answer gave me a hunch of what was causing her confusion, although the trigger behind that external influence had yet to be revealed.

"I-I don't know…" she stuttered, blushed and tried to break free. However, I did not let her go, yet. She repeated her sentence with tears in her eyes. At first I thought she was scared, but it turned out that she was very insecure in that moment, and somewhat desperate.

"There we have it," I whispered gently. Her insecurity and confusion were clearly visible now. Part one, tearing down the façade, was done, and I had to follow through with part two. "Let me show you something."

I led her onto the stage, and knelt down again – sitting on my heels, forming circles with thumbs and pointers, and placing my hands on the inner sides of my thighs. As I looked up to her, she just stood there. _It's literally just like you taught me back then, Silver… _I thought, and nodded at her. "Join me."

It took her about a minute to realize what I wanted her to do, and she followed suit after she got the message. She looked at me, questioning this whole thing – what I had done when I had been in her position.

"Now: Close your eyes, and listen," I said, and she immediately did it. "You are the master of your state of mind," I started to recite Silver, whose voice I could hear inside my own head. "You are always in control of your emotions. Do you understand?"

It was a curious sight to see Weiss meditating like I used to do it, and Silver before me. That was the moment the procedures started to differ, though, for she simply nodded. I had punched him in the face for what I had thought to be nonsense.

"Good," I said, "Now let's play the questioning game again." I stood up, and started to walk around her. "You claim to be a potential danger to your team. Why?"

"Because I drift away in thoughts," she answered, and stayed in the meditation position.

"Is this in itself a bad thing?" I inquired. Although that scene must have looked like an interrogation of sorts, the whole thing had the mere intention to get Weiss back on track.

"It depends on when and where it occurs, I think," she immediately responded. "During an encounter, though, it can and will be-"

"Hold it right there, Weiss," I interrupted her, "What triggers these… Let's call them daydreams?"

"They…" she started, but seemed to get stuck in her thoughts again. However, that was exactly, what the exercise was about: Reflecting on events past, may they be recent or distant in time. "They just happen," Weiss answered eventually. That made things difficult. I had hoped to find a trigger, or at least a pattern in these daydreams, or drifts, as she called them. "Focus…" she growled to herself.

"No, no, no," I intervened, and knelt in front of Weiss, "let your thoughts fly… That's what the exercise is for." And again, his words exactly. I started to feel a bit agitated by the whole thing, but focused on Weiss for the time being.

"So," she stuttered, "I can… You mean…"

"Reflect on experiences you had," I explained, "Let us take your current trail of thought, and follow it to the end."

Weiss accepted my suggestion, straightened herself, and started mumbling her thoughts right away. I did not know what exactly I was looking for on that trail we were following, but I soon learned that it was a fond memory of Weiss'. It was about something similar to a sleepover, involving teams RWBY and JNPR, and playing the all time classic spin the bottle. Weiss, however, did not play along, because she deemed it a children's game – which it kind of is, admittedly – aside from feeling uncomfortable in the situation itself. They were in a room barely fitted for four people with twice the amount. In retrospective, Weiss regretted not the decision to pass, but the way she had informed Jaune about it, insulting the blonde in the process.

"He probably wanted to hear me say something obscene," she finished in a scolding manner, and opened her eyes again. I still knelt in front of her, and processed the information.

"And do you still treat him like that?" I asked.

"Of course not," Weiss protested. "I have bettered myself, they say."

"Is their opinion really that important to you?"

"Well, it matters to me, yes," she answered, and became insecure again. I had a feeling I was getting to something there, so I pushed the matter.

"I wonder, what's about your own? Mind telling me?" I inquired.

"I… My own what, exactly?" she asked politely. It appeared I lost her there.

"Your own opinion," I answered, and sat down. My arthrosis just HAD to make itself felt in that moment, which made me grimace, and even groan with pain.

"What's wrong, ma'am?" she asked concerned, and while I appreciated it, we had to stay focused.

"Just my bones, nothing to worry about," I answered, while grabbing my bottle of painkillers. Weiss just nodded, and mumbled something about her opinion about herself. _At least you stayed on track…_

"I… Think of myself as…" she started hesitantly, although not stuttering, and stumbling over her own words. However, she did not finish her sentence, at least not in a spoken form. I gave her another five minutes to eventually say out loud what Weiss was thinking, but she did not, although it seemed to agitate her.

"All in good time, Weiss," I reassured the girl in an attempt to calm her down a bit, "I took months before the meditation had a positive effect on me. Don't force anything."

"I have a few questions about this exercise," she said quietly.

"Ask away, Weiss," I replied.

"Do I have to sit like this?" I asked the same thing first, back when Silver had taught me the exercise. I smiled and shook my head.

"It's not necessary, but I recommend the use of a dedicated pose for the meditation; especially for starters," I explained after Silver's teachings, and winked at Weiss. I laughed internally, because during this little teaching session I used his exact words from back when he had taught me the exercise I was passing on to Weiss. However, I did not just parrot him. I simply lacked any better wording for what it all was about. But during the session, a tension had built up inside me; I could feel it.

"Okay…" Weiss nodded, before asking the next question. "When do I perform the exercise?"

I raised my right eyebrow to that. "You don't 'perform' the exercise. Just do it. Whenever, wherever, however you see fit," I explained, and poked her forehead. "A regular schedule, at random times, that's completely up to you. Oh, and by the way: The place is named 'Coragon's'." It appeared I have answered Weiss' remaining questions in advance, including the one she most likely was not about to ask. While I did that, though, the tension inside started to rise, to close in on the surface. I grit my teeth, while she left with a polite thanks, and ran off after her friends I assumed. It was just after she shut the door behind herself, when I lost it, although I tried my hardest to keep the rage in check.

"You fucking bastard!" I yelled across the empty training hall, kicking the closest mannequin around. "You even dare teach me lessons from beyond the grave?! Why did you have to catch up?! WHY?!" As I was raging around on the stage, my screams of non-physical agony – even the hip joint stopped bothering me – echoed through the hall, and could be heard outside as well, most likely. I did not care at the time, because the emotions needed to get out in some way, and just letting myself rage for a while seemed the best way to do so. The memories of Silver kept getting into my head; no, they had always been in there, hidden away in the darkest corner of forgetting my mind could offer. But then, during a social encounter that did not last longer than a couple of minutes, they all reemerged to the surface. And they hurt me, each and every last one of them. Before long the only sound I was able to utter was weeping, sobbing, and the occasional curse directed at him, even though he was not at fault for what I was going through at the moment. After I was able to get it out of my system, I tidied the training hall, and went to the cafeteria for dinner.

* * *

><p>There, I found Cardin Winchester and his team, harassing, almost molesting a brown haired Bunny Faunus. She probably had been sitting by herself, and thus unintentionally made herself a target to the young men, who I happened to have embarrassed earlier. However, their excuse did not matter, as I closed in behind Cardin, and waited a bit. I needed to make sure, I did not misinterpret the situation. Dove saw me, and already backed off, hands raised in defense. It appeared Cardin was the only one actually doing something, ranging from insults to actual physical assaults in the form of pulled ears, and other not permitted touches. That action was the trigger for me to rage once more, controlled that time. I stepped forward, around the table left of Cardin, grabbed it, and smashed the furniture at him. Surprised by the sudden attack, he stumbled, and sat down rather uncomfortably.<p>

"What the-" he started, but I was the one to talk.

"That is, what you call a Rage flip, boy," I yelled at him, audible throughout the whole building. As I raised my voice, his companions had fled the scene already. It was a bit hard to keep the insults I had for him inside my mind. He looked at me, back at her, and then at me again.

"That thing is-" he actually started to 'defend' himself, but that was the last straw.

"That 'thing' is a she, a person, and a fellow Huntress!" I yelled at him. "And if I EVER catch you doing that shit again, I swear I'll rage flip you off the fucking tower!" I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and pulled him back up to his feet. He was startled, just as I had anticipated – maybe even scared. People like him tended to be as soon as someone stood up to them. I gave him a brief moment to process, before continuing: "Racists, such as you, do not have a place here." I pulled him closer to me, and stared into his eyes, while literally growling at him. "I will not tolerate racism in any way, so you better watch yourself from now on. Did I make myself clear?" And I did not even wait for him to answer. I just pushed him aside, making him stumble into another, luckily unoccupied table.

Although Cardin nodded after tumbling back up to his feet, I hardly thought he got the message. I stared him down for a moment, before I turned my attention to the Faunus girl, who already was surrounded by more friendly fellow students, including Weiss and Blake. "See that?" I asked the young Atlesian man, and pointed at the two students comforting poor Velvet. "You will follow their example, or I will make you one," I growled at him again, "And now get out of my sight." At least he understood the order immediately and left the cafeteria, before I lost my temper again. Since the Faunus named Velvet was already in good care, I intended to leave for my room. However, I then realized none other than Prof. Goodwitch had witnessed the whole thing, and was waiting for me at the exit.

"Miss Grey, I am shocked," she greeted me.

"I had to step in," I explained half-heartedly.

"That is not even the reason, why," she replied, "but the way you treated Mister Winchester was uncalled for."

"I wouldn't say that, professor," I said in an almost calm tone, "You know as good as I do that the best way of making racists rethink their opinion is giving them a taste of their own medicine, as the saying goes."

"Threatening a student is no trivial offense, tutor," she then remarked. I was glad that it took me just a couple seconds to realize that I was on the losing end of that argument with Prof. Goodwitch. There was a time when that took a few days.

"You're right, ma'am," I replied, "I'll see to it that it won't happen again."

"In the way you did it last time, I take it," she then rightfully assumed, for I simply nodded as an answer, to which she sighed. Then she took her leave. It actually felt quite good to rage a bit again, but for the sake of professionalism I needed to regain control over it. A meditation about the day was in order, and so I entered my room, got rid of my armor first, and then sat down in the middle of the room.

As I reflected on the cafeteria incident, I could not help, but start to laugh. I remembered the last time I rage flipped a table into someone's face: It had been in the cafeteria, it had been for the same reason – racism – and it was almost the same procedure. There was a difference between the two incidents, though. The ones being molested happened to be my squad mates Marine, Robin, and Diana, who had been trying their hardest not to confirm the prejudices held against them. However, as I had started to get to work at the bullies back then, they had taken it as a signal to start a fight, and we had beaten the snot out of every single one. Back then Prof. Goodwitch had had us lined up in the Headmaster's office, and we really had thought that we had been about to be expelled from the Academy. Luckily, the incident back then had brought us together as a team, instead of scattering us only the gods could have known where.

"I miss you, love" I told Silver, or his portrait, I somehow ended up holding in my hands. The meditation had fulfilled its purpose after about twenty minutes, and I was calm again. "And this entire day reminded me of you, you bastard." I added, already weeping again. However, it was not as painful as it had been back in the training hall. He was the reason I signed the contract, after all. And Weiss gave me last push by mentioning another couple at Beacon Academy that could fall victim to what had happened between me and Silver. I made it my mission to see to it that these two would not get into the situation I had been in. "Good night, Silver," I eventually said, as I put the photograph back in its place. After that, I took a shower, changed into my nightwear, and fell asleep right away.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Castle Crashers<strong>

**Hello, dear readers**

**This is the place for the usual request for feedback and suggestions. I want to thank a guest, assuming both reviews were created by the same person, for responding to the last one.**

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	15. 15 - Castle Crashers

An ordinary day of lectures, lovebirds and preparations for a certain someone's surprise birthday party went by without any noticeable incidents. Weiss even was delighted by a completely oblivious Ruby, who somehow managed to be even more adorable than she usually was that day. The heiress concluded the meditation exercise Ms. Grey had taught her the day before was already having a positive effect on her apperception, because Weiss began to be less and less annoyed by the antics of her team mates and other friends alike. However, team RWBY was currently plotting an investigation of 'Coragon's', while already on the way to the place. Of course Weiss had informed the Headmaster and her team about her results, after she had confronted the new tutor with the message hidden on the mask. Prof. Ozpin really had forgotten about the bar team EMRD had frequented regularly back in the day. Said bar being the only lead they had, the Headmaster tasked team RWBY to investigate, and see if they could find out anything about the three suspected Emerald Ghosts. The team had concluded that the location they had been seen last, maybe even the current whereabouts were the only things possible to find out.

"Okay, team," Ruby addressed her partner, sister and sister's girlfriend, "there it is," the little rose then pointed out the obvious. Team RWBY was somewhere in the central district of the City of Vale, 'Coragon's' red lighted sign hanging above a row of seemingly old fashioned windows and a wooden door on the other side of the street. The building itself appeared to be made of stones, like the old ruins which could be found littered across the Emerald Forest or Forever Fall. That choice of design created the appearance of an ancient castle, to which the design of the building itself with its fake battlements and arrow loops added perfectly. "Let's go through the plan again."

"We go in, and act natural," Yang recited what the young leader had come up with, slightly annoyed, since she had done so three times by the time they arrived. "As our expert in subtlety and espionage," the brawler then continued with a delighted smirk, "we will let Blakey do the actual talking to the bartender."

"That sums it up, I think," said expert added, and nudged Yang in a playful, loving manner. Ruby reminded the team of the other approaches towards the patrons; so that Blake would not have to do all the work, while the rest would literally sit around. All four of them had their weapons with them, and wore their usual combat attire, since the Huntresses in training were on a mission. Weiss wondered about the way Blake was going to approach this, as the team was crossing the street, and entered 'Coragon's'.

The establishment turned out to be much like the heiress had imagined it. Ms. Grey had mentioned a medieval themed bar, and it delivered from the entrance to the counter. The walls were adorned with wood boarding, which made them look like they were actual wooden walls, as were the ceiling and the floor. There were actual torches, halberds, swords and shields for decoration purposes hanging on the walls, as well. To earn a few extra points for historical accuracy, straw had been laid out on the floor. There were a lot of alcoves, separated from the main area via chest high dividing walls. To add up to the flair, tables and benches were made out of solid wood, as was the counter, which ran across the far wall of 'Coragon's'. In addition there was a small stage, on which one could perform old folklore songs, just to add even more to the atmosphere of the place. Weiss could really imagine a group of three or four young bards, who just happened to look like her and her team, performing the very song she was hearing via speakers concealed in the decoration.

As they entered the establishment, Weiss could feel many gazes placed upon her, many of them not pleased to see her. The heiress realized that many of the other patrons were Faunus, and they most likely recognized her. Thus, she could feel a bit of hostility building up around her, as team RWBY sat at a free table in relative close proximity to the counter. Weiss and Ruby chose the wall side of the table; Yang and Blake had their backs turned to the room. It did not take long for one of the two waitresses to approach them, and take their orders. Since they were over sixteen, except for Ruby, beer was ordered by Yang and Blake. While the little rose had to stick with a soft drink, the heiress chose one, earning her a sheepishly shy smile by her partner. Her outfit matched the theme of 'Coragon's' perfectly, because it was an old fashioned, green dress with an apron, seemingly made like in the times it was supposed to represent.

"I'm afraid I won't be much help here, guys," the heiress stated, and looked around. Some of the Faunus patrons returned to their respective conversations and drinks, while others looked over to her frequently.

"Hey, it's not like you're doing anything illegal, Weiss," Yang remarked.

"But I see, what you mean," Blake added, as she took a look around herself. Their drinks arrived shortly afterwards – in tankards, including the soft drinks for Weiss and Ruby.

"Wow, they're surely thorough with their theme," Ruby said, and looked at the others. All three of them nodded in agreement.

"Well then," Yang then spoke up, "to another successful day as Huntresses of Beacon!" she then toasted with a smirk, and the team just followed suit. Everyone just took a sip of their respective drink, and Blake seemed to notice something.

"Oh, the tankard's broken," the Faunus said, and pointed at a small crack in the edge. "I'll better inform the bartender, be right back."

Shortly after Blake approached the bartender, a Faunus man in his mid 40s, tall, bearded like a goat, for he was a goat-Faunus after all, and somewhat muscular as far as Weiss could see, a group of four Faunus in White Fang uniforms entered the bar. Three of them were similar in size and figure, hiding their Faunus features under the hoods and wearing the Grimm masks, the group was infamous for. Another, most likely the leader of the quartet, was a head taller than the others, wore the uniform and mask, but not the hood, since his antlers would simply not allow it. They took a short look around, and then went to the counter, where they surrounded Blake almost instantly – she just happened to be the only one there at the time.

"What's that?" one of the subordinates said aloud, and pointed at the bow adorning the Faunus girl's head. Yang already got up, clenched her fists, and snarled a little bit. Weiss and Ruby also got up, and the heiress already prepared for the inevitable encounter, still in hopes the situation would be solved peacefully – or without violence, at least.

"Excuse me?" Blake asked, turned towards them, and immediately froze on the spot. She appeared to be startled, scared even of them.

"Pretending to be a Faunus with that thing," stated the one with the antlers, and tried to get a hold of Blake's bow, "or hiding your true heritage?"

"N-no," she answered, and tried to get away, but one of the White Fangs pushed her against the counter. Yang then decided that it was enough. The brawler grabbed the one on the far left, turned him around, and punched him in the face. In the meantime, Weiss was wondering about the strange behavior of her black haired friend. Being startled was one thing, but in that moment Blake appeared to be frightened by the White Fang presence around her.

"Leave her alone!" Yang yelled, while she engaged the Faunus who dared attack her girlfriend. Of course the other two henchmen came to the aid of their comrade, as did Ruby and Weiss to help Yang. While the older sister stood her ground during the erupted fistfight rather gracefully, the younger one did not fare that well. In fact, the little rose received two punches into her face and a kick in her stomach area. After she had tumbled backwards against the nearby wall, the heiress was shoved aside by the physically superior White Fang Faunus. As they tried to get a hold of Ruby, the heiress cursed, and flung the Faunus against the wall behind her partner via white propulsion glyphs, while pulling Ruby towards herself with her right hand. It was a good choice, since the henchmen got to their feet immediately after landing on the floor. However, before they could do anything else, Weiss immobilized them with black gravity glyphs around their feet and hands, restraining them without much of an effort.

The one with the antlers turned out to be a more significant challenge for Yang. Weiss turned around, and as the brawler was about to pull him away from Blake, just before he could rip the bow of the black haired girl's head, he managed to grab the arm Yang had used for a straight punch into his ribcage. The punch itself seemed to have had little – if any – effect on the Faunus. He twisted the arm, forced Yang to her knees, and then kicked her in the head. That way, he stunned her, and used his advantage to insult the brawler.

"What's the matter, bitch?" he said. "Go back on the street, and hook up some di-AAARGH!" he was not able to finish his insult, for someone grabbed his head from behind with one hand, the left one of his antlers with the other, and broke it off – very forcefully. He did not even have time to scream in pain for long, because he then was smacked in the side of his head with his own body part. The force of the blow threw him off his feet and onto the counter. As he was no longer blocking the line of sight, Weiss immediately recognized Diana Woods. _What? She came out of nowhere…_ Weiss thought, while the wolf Faunus started to beat the White Fang Faunus into submission, again with one of his own antlers in hand, as if she intended to add insult to injury.

"What's yer fuckin' problem, cunt?" the Faunus woman asked, growling like the wolf she partly was, although she kept beating the man. The other two Faunus still tried to free themselves of the glyphs the heiress had locked them in, to no avail. The third henchman, however, was still free to engage the raging wolf Faunus when Marine Lancaster – Weiss recognized the dog Faunus just as quickly – appeared behind him, and put him into a headlock with such force, the heiress feared the dog Faunus would strangle the White Fang henchman with his arms. His twin brother Robin Lancaster showed up behind him shortly afterwards. Diana Woods got a hold of the leader's throat, and pulled him off the counter. He was still somewhat conscious, although she was crushing the throat of the man so hard, he was on the verge of suffocating – and the Faunus woman seemed to have no intention to let go.

"Get the fuck outta here, 'fore I forget meself. And take yer fuckface suckers outta me face, else I rearrange ALL yer faces… 'Specially yourrrrrs…" she growled at him in a low, threatening tone of voice. The heiress could feel the growl in her guts, and although she was not even at the receiving end of it, it was simply frightening. "Molestin' a girl with four supposed men… Disgustin'…" she added, lowering the tone of voice and growl even more. Marine gave Weiss a short nod, and the heiress released the two Faunus from her glyphs. They were at least smart enough to not try anything after their release. While Ruby attended to Blake, who still appeared to be frightened, Yang was still collecting herself. The effect of the kick to her head by the antlered Faunus must have been more severe than what the brawler usually dealt with when she got hit. Meanwhile, Diana Woods 'guided' the White Fang Faunus she was holding by his throat to the door, and literally threw him out – and his broken off body part after him, insulting him in various ways while doing so. Marine Lancaster followed suit with the one he had in a headlock – without throwing insults at him – and Robin Lancaster kicked one of the two, who had attacked Weiss and Ruby, in his bottom with every step he took, thus guiding him to the door as well. It appeared he had much fun while doing that. Yang had recovered from the concussive kick to the head in the meantime, and took the liberty of taking care of the last henchman. Meanwhile, Blake, Ruby and Weiss sat down again, with the black haired girl between her friends, obviously looking for protection.

"Thanks, guys," the bartender addressed the returning trio after they had taken out the metaphorical trash they had called the White Fangs while throwing them out. Weiss now took a closer look at them, while they exchanged some pleasantries with the barkeeper like close friends tend to do, which confirmed to Weiss that the remaining members of team EMRD were still regulars at 'Coragon's'.

Diana Woods was wearing a pair of cargo pants, combat boots, a simple shirt and a combat vest, all of which matched in a brownish color scheme, and their pattern resembling the bark of a tree. Her shoulders were covered by small leather guards, which were colored in different shades of green in a leave like pattern. Her companions were wearing a uniform like set of cargo pants, shirts and boots, which each had a camouflage pattern. The only difference between their attires was the color scheme – Marine Lancaster in blue colors, Robin Lancaster in red. All of them had folded weapons in designated bags on their backs, easy to reach.

"Glad, we're not the only ones willing to help," Marine Lancaster stated, and looked around. His voice was rough and deep, but he spoke in a friendly tone. Weiss noticed that a couple of other patrons had stood up in order to intervene, and were sitting down again – the trio just had been quicker. However, the heiress could not tell where they had come from. She was just glad, as Marine was, that the situation was resolved before anything really bad happened. "You alright, girl?" he then asked Blake. She just nodded somewhat fearfully. _I don't think you are…_ Weiss thought, however.

"Mind, if we join ye?" Diana then asked. Of course Ruby invited them to sit with team RWBY at the table, while Yang joined Blake between the heiress and the little rose.

"Who of you is the glyph user, if you don't mind me asking?" Marine Lancaster asked politely, after he and his brother had fetched their drinks from a relatively dark alcove, from which the trio must have emerged.

"That would be me, Sir," Weiss answered, just as politely. "My name is Weiss Schnee," she then introduced herself, "and these are my friends, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, and Ruby Rose," the heiress completed the introduction of team RWBY in the order they were sitting at the table right then.

"I knew that face was familiar!" Robin shouted excitedly, "You look awesome, Blake!" he added, and winked at her, while pointing at Blake with both hands. While such a compliment in itself tended to be a reassuring thing, Weiss noticed Blake had only calmed down a bit by then. Her friend was still nervous, but the heiress was not able to tell why.

"Marine Lancaster," the man in the middle of the trio introduced himself, after being reminded of his manners by the heiress.

"Rrrrrobin Lancasterrrrrr," his brother followed suit, as if he was an announcer in some sort of sports event. Yang could seemingly not resist smirking at that behavior.

"Diana Lancaster." The last of the trio growled her own name, and eyed team RWBY down one by one.

"Wait, isn't your last name Woods?" Yang asked Diana, out of simple curiosity, Weiss supposed. _Come on, Yang, are you serious?_ While the brawler just realized, what she had said, she got a curious look by all three Faunus – one suspicious, one surprised and amused, while the last one was furiously skeptical, to say the least.

"I've married Marine o'er there…" Diana growled as her reply.

"And how do you know her maiden name, Miss Xiao Long?" Marine asked, still being polite. Diana tensed up, and started growling again, while Robin jumped on his brother's lap, looking at his female companion like a scared child, and even started to whine.

"Uh, we met your team leader, and she mentioned you…?" Yang answered in form of a question, while looking at her team mates for help.

Diana Lancaster suddenly shot up. Although she did not growl at Yang, all four girls were startled by the sudden movement. "WHAT?!" the wolf Faunus shouted aggressively, yet surprised, drawing all the attention inside 'Coragon's' towards her. The other two members of team EMRD looked just as surprised, although they were busy getting one brother off the other's lap.

The brawler started to explain: "Well, we've met your team leader in her house, where we saw a photograph of you all, and she explained to us how you guys saved Blakey here…" As Yang put her left arm around her girlfriend's shoulders, the three faces of the Faunus started to light up. _Too close, Yang… That was too close…_ The heiress thought.

"That's some actual good news," Marine then said. "Would you mind telling us how she was, when you saw her?" he then inquired, as if he intended to draw the attention away from Blake. He must have noticed her nervousness as well, Weiss assumed. Since these three individuals and Ms. Grey had been a team, and maybe even still were, the heiress did not mind letting Yang answer the question – she would have done it anyway, even if the heiress would have protested.

"I think she's fine, and definitely a good teacher. Just yesterday she beat up one of our fellow students for being a total… Jerk, and-" Thankfully Yang did not forget her manners and at least thought about her wording before insulting someone. Being Huntresses in training or fully trained Huntsmen and a Huntress, all seven of them were role models – Yang especially so towards her little sister.

"Say what?!" Diana interrupted Yang loudly – again.

"She's a tutor at the Academy now?" Marine asked in addition. "Since when?"

"Since Monday, I think," Yang assumed, but neither of team RWBY knew the exact first day of Ms. Grey's employment at Beacon.

"Wooooo! We gotta go visit her, visit her, visit, visit, visit!" Robin suddenly sang – if one could call it that – and started to bounce around.

"Calm down a'ready, ye maniac!" Diana tried to intervene, but said maniac just did not listen to his sister-in-law. Weiss could not tell whether she was still angry, because of the White Fang quartet, or angry again, because her brother-in-law embarrassed all three of them by bouncing around the establishment like Nora on some illegal substance – the heiress could recall one named Speed which could cause such hyperactivity on 'normal' people. The heiress could not believe there was someone, let alone a full grown Faunus man, with worse behavior issues than Nora appeared to have.

"Sit down, already," Marine said after a few moments.

"Butbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbut…" Robin protested, and lowered his dog ears. Diana started to rise, when Marine finally regained control over his seemingly hyperactive brother.

"The only butt involved in this conversation is yours, brother. On this bench. Now." Said brother simply submitted, while almost whining like a dog, as Marine pointed at the seat the red clad of the twins had left empty for his antics.

"What was that about?" Yang asked bluntly.

"Excitement got the better of me, but seriously: Can you blame me?" Robin defended his joyous outburst. "I mean: We were certain she had perished by now."

"He's right about that," Marine added, and nodded to his brother. "And I am just as relieved as he is to hear that she is well and working again."

"Well, finally another good teacher at the place," Diana remarked with an amused snarl, however that was possible. While Yang exchanged some of their experiences with certain professors, Weiss watched Blake from time to time. The Faunus girl used the idle chit chat team EMRD's members, Yang, and Ruby had engaged in to simply lay low in a metaphorical way. She was probably still dealing with the surprise, or shock even, the assault might have caused.

"Blake, what's wrong?" Weiss asked her friend quietly, startling her in the process.

"Uhm, still a bit shaken up, I think…" Blake answered, almost whispering. _As I thought…_

"They surely surprised you, hm?" the heiress tried to tease the Faunus a bit – with the intention to ease her mind, of course.

"Yes," Blake replied, after she calmed herself a bit further, "but not in the way you might think."

"Oh?" Weiss wondered, "I don't think I get what you mean, Blake."

"The real surprise was: They did not attack you, and you were clearly visible," Blake started to explain.

"I think they didn't see me, because I sat a bit off to the side, with my back to the wall," Weiss replied, "And you were somewhat the center of attention… Being the only one at the counter, I mean."

"Yeah, I didn't think about that…" Blake then said, and looked over to Yang and Ruby, who were still engaged in their conversation with team EMRD. They were talking about searching someone, while Marine looked for something on his Scroll. When he showed a picture of a young man with a black and red jacked, a Grimm mask covering his upper face, and a red sword in hand, Blake became uneasy again; even more than during the assault of the White Fang Faunus. These four merely startled the black haired girl, but this one, even though it was only a picture of him, plainly frightened her.

"His name is Adam Taurus," Marine started to explain, "and he's one of the leading heads of those four idiots we threw out." Blake took a hold of Yang's arm under the table, out of sight of everyone in the bar. Yang simply put that arm around her girlfriend's waist, for reasons of concealment, Weiss assumed.

"He's s'posed t' be responsible fer a heist on one o' them SDC warehouses last week. Went south fer sum reason, though," Diana added snarling, although everybody who had watched or listened to the news knew, what that reason was: The Emerald Ghosts.

"But the Ghosts intervened, so… Everything's cool," Yang stated.

"Maybe, but what do the White Fucks need a ridiculously large amount of Dust for, eh?" Diana asked in return. To that, none at the table seemed to have an answer. The wolf Faunus let a few seconds pass, before speaking up again: "See? That's the real question right there."

"And it's not like they couldn't pull off such a thing again, elsewhere," Marine added. The heiress, like the rest of team RWBY could not agree more to that.

"Maybe it's more about damaging my father's company…" Weiss assumed, and rightfully so. A successful heist would have caused a significant financial damage, while the failed one still had done some damage to sales, most likely – Other companies might not have wanted to become targets for the group of Faunus, after all. And Weiss could not blame any of them.

"Probably," Diana replied to the heiress' assumption, "But ye heard the news, right? Were prepped for sum heavy liftin', far's that security guy's accuracy's concerned."

"Yeah, the guy was right there," Yang said, "And saw these three 'Ghost' characters."

"Mhm…" Marine leaned forward a bit, and took a very close look at the brawler and Blake, who still held her girlfriend's arm. Weiss felt uncomfortable, because the three members of team EMRD in front of them changed their respective stances. They were not hostile, or repellent, but reserved. Diana even kept her level of aggression she seemingly always had, but it clearly took more effort to do so.

"A particular interesting set of characters, won't you agree?" Robin suddenly spoke up, and startled the heiress in the process. "What do you four think about them?" he then asked, looking at Weiss, as if she was to begin answering.

"Well…" she tried to start, but immediately found herself at a loss of words. As it turned out, the heiress never actually thought about what to think of the Emerald Ghosts herself. Naturally there were the many opinions and thoughts covered in the news – interviews and articles alike – public discussions and their presence always shadowed Faunus rights protests – presumed presence that is. Weiss was still thinking about her answer, when suddenly a group of people busted in the door. Hostile tensions immediately rose as at least a dozen White Fang brutes literally stormed the establishment, armed with red bladed swords. Weiss could not make out any striking features of certain individuals in the group, with the exception of one whose antlers were no longer complete. While they were rallying around the table teams EMRD and RWBY sat at, the other patrons fled the building; the White Fang let those people leave, at least.

"Well, look who't is…" Diana snarled at them, as she got to her feet. Marine signaled the barkeeper and other patrons, who had not left yet, to do just that. As he and his brother exchanged a brief look, followed by a collective nod, the heiress was certain the twin brothers had some sort of plan. "Gathered sum friends fer round two, eh?!" Diana continued to taunt the White Fang Faunus, who had gathered around her, while Robin and Marine slipped into the back of the bar seemingly unnoticed by the group.

Ruby wanted to follow suit, but a quick glance by Weiss convinced the little rose to stay out of the upcoming fight for the time being. The heiress was sure, however, that she and her friends would get involved eventually. Blake, on the other hand, was anxious to get involved immediately, which made Yang simply hold her tight, while Ruby and Weiss turned over the table to create an improvised cover – as bad as simple wood possibly would be for that matter.

"You little slu-" the humiliated Faunus of the White Fang started, but he was interrupted by an enraged Diana Lancaster.

"I TOLD YE T'GET YER FUCKFACE OUTTA HERE, PUNK!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, as she unfolded her weapon into an automated shotgun in brownish colors; its barrel appeared to be adorned with a strange looking chain, decorated with engraved leaves, colored in green. The weapon appeared very bulky to Weiss, and by the movements of its wielder the heiress could safely say that it was as heavy as it looked. "Now it's playtime, bitches!" She growled at them. The antlered Faunus started laughing, but was cut off, quite in a literal sense, when one of his followers was knocked of his feet by a shot. By the time the group had realized that one of their own had been almost killed, Diana just shot at two others – apparently at random – who were lucky enough to get hit at their armored chests, thus surviving the onslaught by the enraged wolf. "Come on, baby! Show me what ye got!"

Having yelled that, Diana deemed it a good idea to change her weapon into its melee form – many Huntsmen and Huntresses had chosen that approach to their Foldable Frame weaponry, after all. But Weiss, like her team mates, had never seen such a thing before. The shotgun took on the form of a sword, encased on one side, while the blade seemed to be the chain which decorated the shotgun form before. While Ruby whispered the word 'chainsaw' in a mixture of astonishment and surprise, the weapon started to roar like such a tool. The White Fang thugs in front of her jumped back a bit, as much startled by the sudden noise as the heiress was, but then engaged the Huntress with the chain sword in close combat.

Steel clashed on steel, the Huntress' weapon roared with every strike she performed against her opponents, and sparks started to fly around inside the bar. In that moment the not so medieval fire-extinguishing system was activated, preventing the furniture from getting set ablaze by those sparks. While the White Fang was surprised by the sudden, unnatural downpour, the wolf Faunus fighting them took immediate advantage of their moment of abstraction. She grabbed one of them by his chest armor, shoved him into another, and would have brutally dismembered them with her weapon afterwards, were it not for their heavy, full body armor suits; they were tossed against the wall like the three before them, instead. With five fighters incapacitated after mere seconds, the group of White Fang Faunus fled 'Coragon's' hastily, panicked even. But after they stormed outside, gunshots were fired. And a lot of them, in fact. _Are they just…?_ Weiss thought, but could not finish it, because Diana addressed her.

"YOU!" she yelled, and pointed at the heiress, who had been watching the entire encounter from behind the table. "What should I do with'em?"

Weiss left the cover, and noticed Ruby behind her. "What?" The heiress yelled back over the sound of the running fire-extinguishing system.

"Choice's simple: Gut'em, or let'em go?" Diana explained, and held her chain sword close to one of the beaten Faunus' neck. As she made her weapon roar once again, Weiss screamed at the top of her lungs: "LET THEM GO!"

As soon as Weiss had said that, the chain sword's roar stopped. Diana looked down at the Faunus. "Ye heard th'lady: Get outta here," she said, and although the heiress could not hear it very clearly, she was convinced the Faunus could, for they got to their feet and stumbled out of the bar. Team RWBY and Diana Lancaster left the bar as well, all five of them soaked to the bone.

The police arrived to the scene shortly afterwards, and started questioning witnesses, teams EMRD and RWBY included. While Weiss and her friends tried to give as many details as possible to the officers, mainly the headcount of White Fang fighters, the weaponry used in the fight, words that had been spoken, and names, the seasoned Huntsmen and the equally seasoned Huntress provided information about the way the Faunus group went, and what had happened before, and after the fight, to which the police had been called. All this took something around one and a half hour, before team RWBY finally went home, back to the Academy.

* * *

><p>"Damn it," Yang suddenly spoke up loudly after she entered the dorm room as the last of the four. Ruby went straight for the bathroom, while Blake and Weiss took a seat on their respective beds.<p>

"What did you want to ask her?" the black haired Faunus asked her girlfriend, while both were getting rid of their footwear.

"Why she wanted Weiss to decide…" said girlfriend replied, and looked at the heiress. Weiss was just as confused as the couple about that. "I mean, you had a clearer look at her than I did, am I right?"

"No," the heiress answered, and shook her head gently, "I'm afraid I couldn't see much because of the water, just as you couldn't."

Blake hugged Yang seemingly out of nowhere as the blonde was about to reply to Weiss. "Hey there, what's wrong?" she then asked her girlfriend, hugging her as well.

"I'm afraid, she was testing Weiss," Blake said quietly, before looking at the heiress directly, "and I think you passed the test." While Blake seemed to have confused Yang, Weiss tried to figure out what kind of test this possibly could have been.

"Wait…" the heiress then spoke up. "How do you come to this conclusion, Blake?"

"Well, you might not have noticed the way Misses Lancaster looked at you," Blake started to explain. After a brief thought, Weiss shook her head – she really did not notice that. "She was very skeptical, to say the least."

"Yes, I know: I am a Schnee, and no Faunus likes my family for obvious reasons…" the heiress admitted in an annoyed tone of voice. Why did Blake have to remind her about that circumstance at that moment? The Faunus nodded, while Yang took her left hand into her own, and squeezed it a bit.

"But you stepped in for me, a Faunus, although you didn't do much to help me directly…" Blake continued her explanation, and took a deep breath, before continuing further. "She could've killed all of them easily, as far as I could see. She was the superior fighter in that engagement. But she held back, for some reason. It's just a hunch I have to admit, but…"

"…It somewhat makes sense…" Weiss assumed, and finished Blake's sentence for her in the process. "But it's just an assumption," the heiress then clarified, "as is team EMRD being the Emerald Ghosts – still, I'm afraid."

After saying that, Weiss went to her desk in order to write the report for Prof. Ozpin. Ruby reemerged from the bathroom, wearing her pajama pants and tank top, as she always did when going to bed. Yang had decided to occupy the bathroom next, and Blake left the room in order to get a light snack.

"Still on duty, I see?" Ruby asked. The heiress did not even realize her partner so close behind her, her shoulders literally touched the soft, warm chest of the little rose.

"Reports don't write themselves, you know?" Weiss remarked harshly. Why did Ruby have to get THAT close to her? If she wanted to take a look at what the heiress was doing, a step to the right would have sufficed just fine. "And I don't want to forget anything. Besides, I've always written the reports right after missions, so why bother now?"

"Because something's clearly bothering you," Ruby answered in an unfamiliar gentle tone of voice, and placed her hands on heiress' shoulders, "and it seems you're tensed up, as well," she added, and started to massage Weiss' shoulders without a warning – let alone permission. Naturally, she tensed up even more during the assault on her personal space, and when the unexpected strong hands of Ruby started to push her muscles, Weiss started to flail around.

"Dolt, what are you- Ouch!" the heiress exclaimed, shoved Ruby back to the middle of the room, and huffed at her. However, before another fight broke loose – which would have been the first in a long time – Weiss realized how right Ruby was about her being tensed up, although the little rose did not know how to massage properly, it seemed. "S-sorry," Weiss said, as she looked at Ruby's surprised, and somewhat saddened face. _What's with that?_

"No, no, I'm sorry," Ruby insisted surprisingly, "I forgot you don't like being touched without permission. I just tried to be nice."

"Okay," the heiress sighed, "and I overreacted. Now that that's done, I have to admit, you're right." As if on cue, her back started to hurt rather badly at the shoulder blade area, probably through the combination of the incorrectly applied massage and the fact, the muscles actually were tensed up quite a lot. "So, do you know how to fix that?"

Ruby simply nodded. "I could try again, provided you agree with it…" she then said shyly. _You're blushing? Why?_

"Alright," the heiress replied in acceptance of the offer. "What am I required to do?" she then asked, although she had sat down at her desk again in order to finish the report first. Weiss deemed it obvious enough that the massage would have to wait until she was finished, and Ruby got the hint, it seemed.

"Well… You would have to undress…" Ruby almost whispered embarrassedly, "S-so I can apply massage oil and stuff properly!" the little rose added hastily, when Weiss took in a sharp breath.

"…Of course… You'll use a towel, I assume?" _Why would I even THINK it could be a different reason?_ Weiss thought to herself. She was talking to Ruby, not to Yang, after all. The brawler would have been much more suggestive in that regard, though.

"For the oil? B-but of course…" Although Weiss did not look up from her report, she knew Ruby was fiddling about with her fingers in front of her chest nervously. She could feel a subtle smirk sneaking onto her lips as she kept thinking about it, while Ruby started her preparations, by the sounds of it. Her partner's behavior was always childish to some extent, but the heiress had grown to like it for some reason. After all, that was what made Ruby Rose who she was. As the report reached its conclusion a few minutes later, Blake returned from her little snack prowl.

"Hello… What's going on here?" the Faunus inquired, while still standing in the doorway. Weiss turned around and looked at what Ruby has been doing behind her back, immediately asking herself the same question. Ruby had folded the cover at the foot of the bed in an orderly fashion, and in its stead her big red towel with the black outlined rose in the center if it covered sheets and pillow. On the end table there were three bottles with what Weiss assumed were massage oils. Ruby sat on the edge of the bed, smiling shyly and fiddling with her pajama pants and tank top, while blushing as well.

"Well," Weiss said after taking in the sight, "This is far more than I was anticipating for a simple massage." The heiress had just finished the report and put pen and papers back to where they belonged in an orderly fashion. Now she had to undress herself, and lay down on her bed so Ruby could begin, yet Weiss hesitated – and she felt lucky to have done so. A few seconds later Yang reemerged from the bathroom, ready for bed. She did not even take notice of what was going on as she planted herself on Blake's bed, while the Faunus entered the bathroom to prepare for the night. Now Weiss stood there, and did not know what to do.

"Wow, Ruby, what's going on over there?" Yang finally took notice of the situation on the other side of the room, and started to grin slyly.

"It's just a massage, Yang," Weiss stepped in, before Ruby would embarrass herself even more by stuttering, while trying to explain the situation. The heiress braced herself for the teasing comment her blonde friend was about to deliver.

"That explains the missing rose petals and perfumed candles…" Yang remarked with a suggestive wink at Ruby, causing the younger of the sisters to blush even more.

"Stop this, right now!" Weiss commanded, and looked at the blonde angrily. She just raised her hands in defense, but snickered nonetheless.

"Alright, alright. Shall I leave you two to your moment, though?" The brawler then asked, now looking at Weiss in that suggestive manner. At least she left her sister alone, more or less. _Don't make a scene now…_ Weiss warned herself, and took a brief moment to collect her thoughts via the meditation exercise Ms. Grey had taught her.

"I don't think that would be necessary," she then replied, "However, since Ruby has to be able to apply everything properly, I ask you to look away for a moment – out of courtesy."

"Sure thing, princess," Yang answered and grabbed one of Blake's books in order to pretend to read it. Weiss just knew Yang would take at least one peek at her, as she went towards Ruby, who immediately closed her eyes, and covered them with her left hand. The heiress could not help but smile at that, as she loosened her combat skirt, and placed it on the chair she always used to store her clothing temporarily. It felt a bit strange to her to wear nothing but white panties as she lay down on her belly.

"You may begin now," Weiss then allowed Ruby to get to work on her back. The little rose immediately started by opening one of the bottles, and pouring some its content on the heiress' back. As she then started to spread the cool oil on Weiss' back, the sound of Ruby's nervous breathing caught the heiress' attention. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I just… I'm just a bit out of practice," Ruby replied nervously. What she did, though, was at least equal to a professional massage in a spa, if not even better than the last one Weiss had received. When Ruby started the actual massage, the heiress could not decide whether it felt good or bad at first. The little rose started with the shoulders, correcting the error there caused by the incident earlier. She pushed her thumbs against them rather forcefully, and caused a bit of pain at first, before it turned into a more pleasurable feeling of relief. Ruby then continued the same procedure again and again, working her way downwards slowly, while moving her strong hands in small circles.

"Mmmh, good…" Weiss moaned – without the intention to do so – and Ruby just laughed a bit, quietly and shyly. "Oh… Shouldn't have said it like that…" the heiress then remarked.

"It's okay, Weiss… I'm glad you like it…" Ruby whispered in return, and applied even more pressure on Weiss' back muscles.

"Aaah…" Weiss exclaimed during the immediate rush of pain, which might have sounded a bit different, if it were not for the given context. "That hurt…" She added.

"It will be better, soon, Weiss," Ruby simply replied, and stroked the back up to the shoulder blades, and then down almost to the hips again, once. That move made Weiss sigh in relief, because of the short break created by it. As the massage continued, her back started to feel warm, because of the oil applied to it. That warmth spread through Weiss' entire body as it helped Ruby loosen up the back. Interestingly enough, the heiress felt somewhat excited around her lower stomach area for a moment, but when she asked herself if she was aroused, the feeling vanished as quickly as it came. So, Weiss just shrugged it off as a side effect of Ruby's masterfully done job.

Although the heiress enjoyed the massage quite a lot, all things considered, she was glad when it was over. Ruby had been very thorough, and managed to loosen up many of the knots in her back rather effectively. While the little rose was cleaning the remainders of the massage oil from Weiss' back with an additional towel, she hummed a slow, somewhat romantic melody to herself.

"Okay, all done," Ruby eventually said, "Do you feel any better?"

"What a question: You just worked a wonder on my back, Ruby," Weiss replied, and turned around. Her partner was already cleaning up behind herself, when Weiss realized she was still only in her panties. Although she covered herself quickly, she could have sworn Ruby took a short peek at her chest, but the heiress decided to simply ignore that. It was late, she was tired, thanks to Ruby's massage skills, and drifted away into the realm of dreams almost instantly. This time, however, her dreams were different than usual.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Grapevine<strong>

**Hello there**

**I actually liked the outcome of this, but I request, as always, feedback of you. It doesn't matter, if you liked it or not, just point out, why you formed the opinion you did, so that I can improve, if the need arises.**

**Sincerely**

**Eryrthreas**


	16. 16 - Grapevine

The day had finally arrived. It actually had been a long time since last Weiss had looked forward to a specific moment in time, and it was drawing closer rather rapidly. Preparations were underway according to what she and her friends had planned for the 16th birthday of Ruby Rose, especially the surprise part. While Yang provided a distraction by simply dragging Ruby away from the dormitory to 'show her something really cool', the rest of the clique prepared one of the common rooms inside the dormitory for the surprise party they were about to hold.

"Weiss, is this okay?" Jaune asked, while he and Pyrrha were holding a garland, which had 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' written on it in bright, colorful capital letters, against the ceiling. The heiress had planned it to be the very first thing Ruby should see when eventually entering the room, so she went to the doorway, and looked at the display her friends had prepared.

"That is… Exactly how I imagined it. Thank you, guys," she said with a happy smile.

"Don't mention it," Pyrrha replied as she and her partner started to attach the garland to the ceiling, although they had done so about five times by then. Weiss was very picky as far as the decorations were concerned, which most likely annoyed her friends. But the heiress did not mind that, because for Ruby's birthday everything had to be done to perfection; everything. However, she had never been that excited about anything before, and needed the aid of a meditational breather from time to time in order to keep her excitement in check, while preparing the surprise party.

Suddenly, Nora busted into the room, and exclaimed excitedly: "It. Is. Done. BEHOLD!" As she pointed at the door in a presenting manner, Ren appeared with the birthday cake Weiss had asked him to prepare. And behold was actually a good choice of words on Nora's part, because that birthday cake looked just perfectly exact as the heiress had imagined when talking to Ren about it. While it was a simple cream cake at its core, the sugary decorations in form of rose-petals and blooms, the strawberries arranged in between those, and the colors of the sixteen candles on top of it all made it obvious that this cake was meant for the birthday girl – even for someone who would see her for the first time.

As Ren went to the table in the middle of the room to put the cake down, Weiss fetched the circular floral arrangement she had ordered the day before, and placed it on the chair which was supposed to be Ruby's for the occasion. Red roses and a few white ones adorned the circle of sated green, and a red banner in the middle of it had been embroidered with black threads which spelled the number 16 in an old fashioned, but elegant way of writing. The numbers were framed with additionally embroidered golden threads. Jaune let out an impressed whistle.

"That thing looks gorgeous," he commented from above – he was still standing on a ladder, after all.

"Not as much, as you might think, Jaune," Weiss replied, "How's the garland doing?"

"Just finished," he answered, and grinned in some sort of triumph, while looking at Pyrrha again.

"Alright, people, let me double check real quick," Weiss then spoke up a bit louder than necessary, but got everyone's attention this way. "Garland? Check. Cake? Check. Snacks and drink?"

"Potato chips, pizza rolls, cookies, a selection of fruits, soft drinks, beer and other light brewages are all set up and ready," Nora answered, pretending it to be a militaristic kind of report.

"Thank you. I took care of the floral arrangement, so check… What about the balloons, Blake?" Weiss inquired, and had to muster all her discipline not to burst out in laughter at her black haired friend playing with said balloons like a cat would do with a ball of wool. The colorful, helium filled rubber items provided so much of a distraction to her, however, that Weiss had to actually yell her name twice.

"Huh? Wha-? Balloons are ready… I…" Blake simply coughed embarrassedly afterwards, and let the balloons fly. There were about 32 of them rising towards the ceiling, resembling all of the involved students' color schemes – the golden ones for Pyrrha had been quite a challenge to come by. Although most of the others snickered and laughed at Blake for her little distraction, no harm besides a little embarrassment for the Faunus had been done.

"So, balloons… Check. I think we got everything, besides the presents," Weiss then concluded her double checking, and looked at the clock. All went according to plan, and there was still plenty of time before Yang eventually took Ruby into this room for her surprise.

While patience was admittedly not one of Weiss' strongest suits, the anticipation of Ruby's face was more than enough to keep her impatience in check – as paradox as it might have been. However, it became rather difficult to control herself for the heiress, when she could hear Yang babbling about something she could not quite make out through the closed door. And then the door swung open.

"Yeah, yeah, it was cool, and all that, but… I rather… Be… … …" Ruby said, and seemingly lost track of what was going on about what she saw.

"SURPRISE!" everyone shouted as they emerged from around corners, behind one of the sofas and out of the fridge – an original Nora Valkyrie. While the others started to sing 'Happy Birthday', Weiss was distracted by the little rose being all smiles, while she was giggling and bouncing joyously and happily. The heiress felt just as light hearted over the accomplishment of her planning – she had been tasked with the setup for the party after all.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you SO much!" Ruby cheered, and obviously could not decide who to hug first. As Weiss considered the first to be Yang, the little rose rushed towards the heiress, and dragged her into a somewhat strong, yet still gentle hug of gratitude – much to the white haired girl's surprise. Naturally she returned the hug, thinking about where to put her hands carefully. As Ruby went along to hug each and everyone in the room, Weiss simply watched with delight how happy her partner was. Soon afterwards Yang closed the door.

"So, let's get this party started, shall we?" she then asked, and as if on cue, Blake turned on the music. Ruby immediately went for the presents neatly placed next to each other on one side of the table in the middle of the room, and started ripping apart the packaging in childish greed – to know what was inside, Weiss convinced herself.

The little rose started with what turned out to be a new bag for her Crescent Rose, purchased and modified by Pyrrha and Jaune, and adorned with a little badge, on which there was written: 'Your destiny shall always be in your hands, for you can always choose it.'. _That was probably Pyrrha's idea,_ Weiss thought to herself, as her partner hugged both of them rather strongly in joy and gratefulness. Following that rather practical gift were two pieces of literature. One was a compendium about different techniques involving Foldable Frame technology, gifted by Nora, the other was a collection of poetry from Mistral, gifted by Ren. On top of their collective gift was a teddy bear, which resembled an Ursa to some extent, yet it was so adorable, Ruby immediately named it 'Mr. Biggles'. Both Ren and Nora received an equally grateful hug by Ruby, she with delight, he with a bit less of it, but still happy for the birthday girl. The next gift came from Blake, and was something of practical use, namely a field repair kit for Crescent Rose – and other weaponry as well – packed neatly in a pouch hand made for that kit, which Blake had made over the past week. Another hug and a couple of thanks later Ruby went on to Yang's present: A book about sex education. Ruby was not the only one blushing in embarrassment at the sight of this material, while Yang laughed so hard, she almost fell over. Weiss, however, was not as amused as Ruby's sister, although she could not help but smirk at the sight of most of her friends being unable to cope with the situation – she herself included. Blake, however, seemed not to be surprised, and considering that she was actually a part of that family now, the heiress did not even wonder why.

"Alright, Yang, you had your fun," Blake luckily intervened before her girlfriend fainted because of a lack of oxygen, "now let's put this away, and get on with it."

Ruby just nodded, put the book back inside its wrapping paper and unboxed a new set of headphones, which was, again, something rather useful compared to the prank-gift from before. Though embarrassed, Ruby at least managed to take her sister's antics with humor.

"So, now last, but by far not least, Weiss' present," she announced, and grabbed the box Weiss had put the book and ring into. Why Ruby had to make that announcement the heiress did not know, but when the little rose opened the box, the sheer look of astonishment drew everyone's attention, as did the silent gasp she made.

"W-wow…" Ruby stuttered, and took the small, black box with the ring in it into her right hand, while she set down the gift box with her left. Weiss started to feel a little bit uneasy, when Ruby's eyes widened at the sight of the ring. She could not make much out of her partner's reaction, and when the little rose started to show the ring to the others, they just became as astonished as the girl receiving the gift was. "Would you do the honors, Weiss?" Ruby then asked the heiress.

"Y-yes, sure…" she answered, although she was not sure, why her answer came that quickly – like it was natural to do so. As Ruby gave the ring to Weiss so that she could put it on her finger, the heiress could feel the heavy, excited breaths of her partner on her hands, while she carefully put the ring on Ruby's finger, and adjusted it so that the red adornment in the shape of a flower – as abstract as said shape might have been – would be centered on the top side of her finger, while the icy blue ring itself would be in the background, supporting its adornment in a subtle way.

"It's… Beautiful…" Ruby whispered with deep red cheeks. Then, out of nowhere, the little rose placed a kiss of gratitude on the heiress' left cheek, which caused the latter to freeze in place. _What was that?_ Weiss thought to herself, as so many different possible reasons for that kiss raced through her mind, it took all of her focus to cast this storm back to where it came from, before she drifted away again completely; that would have to wait.

"Mhm…" Jaune meanwhile nodded in agreement. Weiss just then realized that everyone had gathered around the two very closely, both fascinated and surprised by the piece of jewelry. Weiss was just happy that seemingly all of her seven friends – who were seven more than at the time she started her career as a Huntress – stood in awe of her-

"I KNEW it!" Yang suddenly exclaimed excitedly and rather amused.

"You knew what?" Weiss asked in return. The heiress already had a feeling where this was going, and she did not like it one bit.

"You have a thing for Ruby, princess," the blonde claimed with a sly, suggestive grin. Weiss immediately felt her face heat up quite a bit in anger. As the heiress feared, Yang was continuing her teasing from the day before, when she told the others about the massage so suggestively even Nora's face went red at the thought of how it had not even looked like.

"This is getting old, Yang," Weiss started to defend herself, "And besides: Just because YOU happen to have this kind of interest does not mean others around you have it." Although it was hard for her, the heiress somehow managed to stay relatively calm – she did not want to be the one ruining Ruby's birthday, after all. So she patiently let the blonde have yet another bit of fun on her and her sister's expense, as hard as it might have been. Ruby on the other hand, as Weiss noticed a few seconds later, fiddled at her cloak nervously and shyly, just the way she did right before the massage the other day. "Hey, don't listen to her," the heiress taught her partner, and guided her attention back to the present.

"Oh, something else," Ruby whispered, and unwrapped the book – the actual gift – followed by a happy smile.

"Good thing I chose the repair kit instead," Blake commented from the side lines, and smiled at Weiss.

"You could've bought one for yourself," Ruby replied, while she took a seat on the designated chair – the one with the floral arrangement on it, which now was placed next to it.

"I was very sure one of the others would get you this," Blake answered to that, as everyone else took their seats as well. "And even if I had been wrong, I could've done that afterwards, so you're kind of right, Ruby."

In the meantime the little rose just stared at the cake somewhat greedily, but most of all fascinated by it. The candles had been lit by Pyrrha, Weiss believed, while Ruby was busy with her presents.

"Make a wish, birthday girl," Yang chirped, and winked at her little sister. Weiss did not believe in this somewhat superstitious custom, but let the sisters have their fun with it.

"Oh, I know exactly what I wish," Ruby replied, took in an exaggerative deep breath, and blew out the candles in one go.

"Very good," Yang praised the little rose, "And remember: Never say it out loud, or else it won't come true." And again, another wink at her sister followed the blonde's words.

"You got something in your eye, Yang?" Ruby then asked her.

"Nah, I'm good," Yang answered.

"Okay, then: Cake time!" the birthday girl let out in a war cry like fashion. She insisted to do the first cut, to which no objection was made, and gave the first piece to Weiss very carefully. A sharp glance at Yang from both her girlfriend and the heiress prevented the brawler from making any more remarks of any nature.

However, as that topic died down, and everyone was busy with chatting, eating, drinking and having a good time, Weiss found herself unable to get the thoughts about Ruby and herself out of her head. She had a thing for Ruby, Yang had claimed. Did she mean the heiress was attracted to the little rose? What kind of attraction was she talking about, provided her – most likely playful – assumption was correct? Weiss had shown some affection to Ruby in the recent past, that was true, but it had been done in the framework of friendship and comradeship, and nothing more – on her side, at least. No, that must not be case. Weiss could tolerate, no respect anyone engaged in such a relationship, as she had proven to Yang and Blake many times by then.

"Hey, you're drifting," Ruby remarked and nudged Weiss a little bit. The heiress just took a relatively large piece of her cake, and almost swallowed it whole.

"I'm sorry, Ruby. Did you say something?" Weiss was a bit embarrassed. She had gained control of her drifting, as she and her friends have grown accustomed to call it, whenever she got lost in thought, so that it only happened rarely, and when the heiress was alone. For it to happen now, in the middle of Ruby's birthday party, there was no excuse – maybe Yang's claim, but that would reignite the discussion, and Weiss did not want that.

"I wanted to thank you for the book," the little rose replied, "I totally forgot that back there… Sorry…" she then excused herself with an adorable smile.

"You-you're welcome," the heiress stuttered nervously, and occupied her mouth with another piece of cake afterwards. Her thoughts kept going to the topic of her being interested in her partner in a much different way than simple comradeship or friendship. How did Yang even get to that conclusion to begin with? Claiming something for the sake of teasing was something the brawler had done from time to time, but the claims themselves always had some sort of basis, and were not far-fetched, at least. So why would she do such a thing to Weiss?

"And that ring is a piece of art," Ruby added after a bite of her own. "Where did you find it?"

"In the mall… 'Bejeweled Jewelry' was the name of the store, I think," Weiss answered, and watched the little rose simply admiring the object in question.

"I think I will take a look at that store myself," Ruby said rather absent-mindedly.

"And what for?" Weiss asked, out of pure curiosity.

"Maybe I'll find a matching necklace to it," the little rose simply thought out loud.

"Since I made this purchase spontaneously, I can't tell you beforehand," Weiss replied. However, the heiress liked the thought of said matching set, admittedly. But just as she started to enjoy the peaceful conversation with Ruby, all had finished their portions of the cake, and activities were demanded: Playing games, to be more precise. Weiss used the opportunity of having lost Ruby's attention to said games to slip away silently, but not without informing Blake she was gone for a quick meditation exercise. The heiress planned on returning 15 to 20 minutes later, and Blake agreed to inform anyone who might be wondering about her whereabouts. She had chosen a nearby roof terrace for her exercise.

* * *

><p>Weiss had altered the meditation stance Ms. Grey had taught her over the past few sessions she had held by herself. Instead of forming circles with pointers and thumbs, the heiress simply put her fists on the front side of her thighs, right above the knees. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. However, this session started as a dream, rather than a question, leading to a trail of thought. She found herself in a frozen forest, at the edge of a snow covered clearing. Surrounding it were many seemingly dead trees, while right in the middle of it there was a house – just like back when she found Ms. Grey's hideout of sorts. That house, however, was a different one. This one was a memory of her childhood, for it resembled one of the dollhouses the heiress had had as a child. In fact, it was the one she still had to that day; the one gifted to her by her late mother on her 7th birthday. She remembered the layout, the living room in the center of the bottom floor, the kitchen to its left, the entrance hallway and staircase to its right. The upper floor contained the parents' bedroom, the child's bedroom, and a bathroom. The whole setting of the house was modern Atlesian, like some of the common households in the outskirts of Atlas City could probably have been arranged.<p>

Although Weiss was not cold, the heiress could see a blizzard approaching in the distance, and because of that she decided to enter the house quickly. Curiosity simply got the better of her, as she just opened the door and went directly into the living room. As she had imagined back when the heiress used to play with the dollhouse, it was like she herself was one of the dolls. The difference, however, was no giant child's face looking inside through a missing wall; her mind had added it instead. "A lucid dream…" She whispered to herself, as she explored the house of her memories. Weiss had planned to think and reflect on the subject of her relationship to Ruby, and yet there she was, close to a childhood memory like never before. In her dreams during the past two nights she had been delving into similar occurrences: Memories of a past she tried to leave behind, which had been altered in a way that roses were involved… Ruby was involved, in a metaphorical sense.

Weiss started searching for any hints pointing towards the little rose. This was a dream, after all, so there had to be at least one such hint inside the dollhouse. In the living room, there was nothing, but the furniture made of plastic, including the fireplace. The kitchen, though rich witch dummy food, tableware and everything else a modern kitchen required, was empty as well. Her search of the upper floor provided nothing, until the heiress entered the child's bedroom, and found herself inside her dorm room instead, as if she had entered it from the hallway. There, Weiss found a little red rose, bloom closed, standing on her end table close to the window, with the flower being placed in a rather beautifully crafted vase. Upon taking a closer look, the heiress realized the rose had not been cut, but potted in it, so it would not wilt away, provided one would take care of the flower. She knew it was hers from the moment she had laid eyes upon it, and that it was probably the answer to her question, although it was very metaphorical, to say the least.

In the meantime, the blizzard had enclosed the house, with winds howling outside. Weiss noticed that through the window, which then was blown open by the raging ice storm. The wind howled deeply and threateningly, as Ruby's bed above started to swing, moved by the howling blasts thrown into the room by the storm. Weiss immediately grabbed the vase with the rose in it in order to prevent the storm from damaging it. She held the bloom close to her chest, and turned away from the window, so her body would shield it from the icy currents of air rushing into the room. These icy currents of air, however, rushed around her, and created rime on the bloom almost instantly. Weiss had to do something about it, and decided to close the window, before the blizzard could do any actual harm to the fragile flower. To that end, the heiress put the little rose under the covers of her bed, in order to get her hands free, so that she would be able to close the window against the howling currents of icy wind blasting against her, while the little rose was protected against the cold. It was a struggle that took almost all of her physical and mental strength, but at last Weiss managed to lock the window.

When Weiss turned away from it, she looked at a desolate room. Blake's books had been strewn around by the wind, some of them even damaged. The desks had been thrown over, as well. The real shock came to her, however, when she noticed that Ruby's bed had fallen on hers – where she had put the rose in order to protect it from the blizzard. "No!" Weiss exclaimed, and catapulted the bed away from the rose via a large, white propulsion glyph. The only thing that mattered in that moment was the flower, which miraculously survived the incident almost unscathed, although the vase had been cracked. There was still the rime on the petals of the bloom, which made them appear to be whitened instead of pure rose red, but despite that, the bloom started to open. A beautiful, white rose bloom was revealed, and the red petals, which acted as its shield while the bloom was still closed, simply fell off, as if they were not needed anymore. Weiss looked at the flower for a long moment, and took a deep breath afterwards. This image, this metaphor in her hands was the hint she was looking for inside this lucid dream. She closed her eyes slowly, and exhaled, while opening them back on the roof terrace she had been meditating.

* * *

><p>"Well… That was intense…" Weiss heard Yang speak up right of her, about two and a half meters away.<p>

"What… What do you mean?" the heiress replied a bit confused.

"You were all clenched fists, grit teeth, and shaking like in a fever," Yang explained her statement, while she sat down on the stone bench next to Weiss, two bottles of beer in hands. "What was going on inside your pretty head?" The question came out of mere curiosity, and yet Weiss asked that exact question herself.

"You do realize I'm sitting here, because of you?" the heiress asked Yang harshly in return. To that, the brawler simply offered one of the bottles.

"And I wanted to apologize for that whole thing," the blonde replied, which clarified the intent of the beer as a gesture of peace. Weiss accepted the bottle, which had been opened beforehand, and took a sip, as she was getting up from her meditation stance, just to sit down on the bench, next to Yang.

"Yang, can I ask you something?" Weiss enquired, tasting the common brewage for the very first time in her life while doing so. It was a bitter mixture, and left that taste in her mouth – the heiress quickly concluded she did not like it, but would empty that bottle regardless, out of courtesy.

"Oh?" Yang showed a bit of surprise, and took a much bigger gulp of the stuff – the brawler obviously liked it. "Ask away, princess."

"How did you manage to get together with Blake?" the heiress then asked bluntly direct, much to the brawler's surprise. And yet she was not sure where that question came from. Mere curiosity was most likely the case, however, so Weiss did not give a second thought about it.

"Uhm," Yang started her answer rather badly, "it was a day before our mission to the north east. You know, this had been going on for a while up to that point, on her part, and I just… Went full offensive mode as soon as I learned it was mutual."

"'Full offensive mode'…?" Weiss recited Yang's wording, the intention of wanting to know the meaning of that expression obvious in tone and facial expression, raised eyebrow included.

"I," the brawler scratched the back of her head somewhat embarrassedly, to which the heiress simply smirked to herself, "I went up to her, placed a kiss on her lips, and saw what happened."

"That was it?" Weiss could not believe what Yang was telling her.

"It was a bit sloppy, 'cause she tried to get away at first, but I held her… Took about five seconds for her to calm down and respond to it in kind," Yang gave a few details about the way she got together with her girlfriend Weiss did not even want to know.

"But she didn't smack you in the face for that assault?" Weiss inquired further, although she was sure she already knew the answer to that question.

"Yeah, or rather no," the brawler replied after another gulp of beer. "High risk, high reward maneuver, I'd say, and it paid off. I think it's kind of like in one of her love novels, so maybe that's why she actually fell for it… I'm just happy it turned out that way."

"As we all are," Weiss remarked, and both agreed silently to leave it at that. They returned to the common room, where the party was in full swing, as everyone enjoyed the good time they had. Someone had turned on the gaming console provided, and Jaune was dominating Ruby in a fighting game the bunch had decided to play – relatively quick matches, so nobody, who wanted to play would have had to wait long for their turn.

"Hey, not fair!" the little rose complained about the situation. Jaune had achieved a 'flawless victory' in the first round of this best-of-three setup.

"Just 'cause it's your Birthday doesn't mean I've to let you win," Jaune remarked, and even was right in that regard.

"At least be a sport and let her out of the corner," Weiss intervened nonetheless, with Pyrrha agreeing. "It's not like something important depends on it."

"Oh, sorry. My bad," he replied, and all of a sudden the match became a more even one, for Jaune let her win the second round, so that they were on even footing again. Ruby won the final round with a little bit of luck, but mostly because she outmaneuvered him. After everyone had a go at the game, even Weiss and Pyrrha, who both were exceptionally bad at it, compared to the others, provided some entertainment for everyone in the room, although neither of them knew what they were doing, exactly.

Eventually, Ms. Grey entered the common room, and watched the group of eight students sitting around the table, having drinks and eating snacks, engaged in idle chatter about something, while Weiss was not really paying attention, until the tutor opened the door.

"Good evening," she greeted, and everyone greeted her back more or less comprehensible. "I hate to be the party pooper," she then said, "but the time is half past midnight." A sudden gasp of surprise went through the group. The agreement with Prof. Goodwitch said that lights would be out at midnight.

"Sssorry," Yang slurred her speech. She had had a bit much to drink, everyone would agree on.

"We forgot the time, Miss Grey," Weiss took over the conversation, and Yang protested that she was going to say just that.

"It appears so," the relatively young tutor confirmed, "and the first complaint just rolled in. So, off you go, into your rooms. You'll clean up after yourselves at…" Ms. Grey took a brief look at her wristwatch, before continuing, "let's say half past eight – at the latest."

"Yessir, ma'am, whatever," Yang mumbled, got up, and immediately staggered towards the door. She definitely had too much to drink, Weiss was certain, after watching Yang almost fall over her own feet twice in the course of merely eight steps. Ms. Grey just smirked at that, and saw to it that teams RWBY and JNPR arrived at their respective dorm rooms without any drunken shenanigans happening along the way.

Luckily, the next day would be a Sunday, which meant more than enough time to deal with a hangover, in case such a thing would happen to anyone involved, and more importantly with cleaning up the common room. However, as the others fell asleep rather quickly, Weiss just thought about the dream she had had during her meditation. She could not get what the many metaphors she had encountered inside her mind meant, and eventually decided that she would not be able to during the night. So she cast aside the thoughts for the time being, but would deal with them the next day, when her head was clear and sober again.

* * *

><p><strong>The next chapter: Field trip<strong>

**Hello dear readers**

**As it turns out, the symbolism of dreams can, and more often than not will be very cryptic. I hope the dream sequence did turn out the way it was intended to, but that would be for you to see, and comment on it.**

**Sincerely**

**Erythreas**


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